The S&P 500 closed at a new record high of 7,165 on Friday. While the Middle Eastern war looms over us, the S&P 500 notched its fourth consecutive up week, although this weeks gain was the lowest of the four at less than 1%. At the NASDAQ both the 100 and Composite also closed at record highs on Friday, showing broad bullishness. A major driver behind those gains has come from the semiconductor sector. On Friday the iShares Semiconductor ETF (SOXX) posted its 18th consecutive positive session, the most ever, ending the week with an 11% gain and up 40% in April. When you dig deeper, on Friday Intel shares soared 23.6% to log its best daily gain since October 1987, posting first-quarter earnings that beat Wall Streets expectations and shared an upbeat forecast for its current quarter. Other chipmaker beneficiaries were Advanced Micro Devices up 13% and Qualcomm up 10%. Big Daddy chipmaker Nvidia also crossed the $5 trillion market cap threshold again on Friday, nearly six months after it first did it on 29 October. From a technical perspective, we did mention that the S&P 500s weekly gain was less than 1%, but that can only be expected after a sharp runup. That breather was probably needed as we head into the busiest part of earnings season, with five of the Magnificent 7 (Alphabet, Microsoft, Amazon, Meta, and Apple) reporting earnings midweek. For TSP TIPS the C fund mirrored the S&P 500 and hit new highs on Wednesday and Friday. That said, the S fund scored a new 52 week high on Monday while the I fund was blanked out, still sitting just shy of a new record. All three funds remain with Composite Scores of 100, and the I fund continues to lead in Performance Rankings (PR). However, the gap between the three has now narrowed to only 1.6%, and if this Fridays closing price was projected out to next Friday, that gap is less than 1%. All told, theres a strong probability of a new investment mix next week so stand by.
The S&P 500 closed at a new record high of 7,165 on Friday. While the Middle Eastern war looms over us, the S&P 500 notched its fourth consecutive up week, although this weeks gain was the lowest of the four at less than 1%. At the NASDAQ both the 100 and Composite also closed at record highs on Friday, showing broad bullishness. A major driver behind those gains has come from the semiconductor sector. On Friday the iShares Semiconductor ETF (SOXX) posted its 18th consecutive positive session, the most ever, ending the week with an 11% gain and up 40% in April. When you dig deeper, on Friday Intel shares soared 23.6% to log its best daily gain since October 1987, posting first-quarter earnings that beat Wall Streets expectations and shared an upbeat forecast for its current quarter. Other chipmaker beneficiaries were Advanced Micro Devices up 13% and Qualcomm up 10%. Big Daddy chipmaker Nvidia also crossed the $5 trillion market cap threshold again on Friday, nearly six months after it first did it on 29 October. From a technical perspective, we did mention that the S&P 500s weekly gain was less than 1%, but that can only be expected after a sharp runup. That breather was probably needed as we head into the busiest part of earnings season, with five of the Magnificent 7 (Alphabet, Microsoft, Amazon, Meta, and Apple) reporting earnings midweek. For TSP TIPS the C fund mirrored the S&P 500 and hit new highs on Wednesday and Friday. That said, the S fund scored a new 52 week high on Monday while the I fund was blanked out, still sitting just shy of a new record. All three funds remain with Composite Scores of 100, and the I fund continues to lead in Performance Rankings (PR). However, the gap between the three has now narrowed to only 1.6%, and if this Fridays closing price was projected out to next Friday, that gap is less than 1%. All told, theres a strong probability of a new investment mix next week so stand by.