The market got the strong Friday rally that it really needed to finish this volatile week with a positive flourish. The major indices all gained more than 1% today and two of them closed at all-time highs.
For the third straight session, most of the action came late in the day. Fortunately, the past two finishes have been to the upside, which mitigated or completely reversed previous sluggishness.
The biggest winner on Friday was the S&P, which jumped 1.66% to 3974.54. It was the biggest winner of the week as well by climbing 1.6% over the five days. The Dow advanced 1.39% (or a little more than 450 points) to 33,072.88, giving it a weekly advance of 1.4%.
Both of these indices reached fresh record closes for the first time since Wednesday, March 17.
The NASDAQ had a rougher road recently, though it rallied into the close as well and increased 1.24% (or around 161 points) to 13,138.72. Its weekly loss was 0.6%, but that’s rather impressive since the index lost 3% on Tuesday and Wednesday combined. However, this does mark a second straight losing week as tech remains under pressure while the market prepares for the economy to reopen.
The inflation-obsessed market got some relief today when core personal consumption expenditures rose 1.4% in February year over year, which was an inch below expectations of 1.5%. Meanwhile, the 10-year Treasury yield was up a bit on Friday, but remained below 1.7% all week.
Fed Chair Jerome Powell was all over the place in recent days trying to convince skittish investors to calm down. He testified in front of Congress, along with Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, on Tuesday and Wednesday, while also making comments on Monday and yesterday. His overall message was that the economy is improving significantly, but remains far from the goals that would require a change in policy.
This week turned out a lot better than we thought it would a few days ago, and now there are only three more trading days in March. It should come as no surprise that the Dow and S&P both have solid gains for the month so far, but the NASDAQ is still in the red… but only slightly!
Let’s see if we can finish the month with as much enthusiasm as we ended this week.
Today's Portfolio Highlights:
Insider Trader: It’s always bullish to see insider buying when a company has the wind at its back. That’s happening at Veritiv (NYSE:VRTV), a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) provider of business-to-business solutions. The company reported a record fourth quarter earlier this month thanks to a hot packaging segment. Shares are up 69% in the past month to new 2-year highs, but that didn’t stop a director from buying 5,000 shares earlier this week. Apparently, he sees more upside for VRTV. Tracey added this stock on Friday with a 10% allocation, but warns that it’s likely to be volatile given its small-cap stature. Read the full write-up for a lot more on the addition of VRTV.
TAZR Trader: Shares of Baidu (NASDAQ:BIDU) plunged 30% this week on fears that the Holding Foreign Companies Accountable Act may lead to a delisting of Chinese companies on U.S. exchanges. There was obviously a lot of panic out there, but Kevin doesn’t think the delisting is as imminent as some feared. Therefore, the pullback presents a fantastic opportunity to buy more of BIDU, an AI-focused player in Chinese big data that is currently up nearly 30% in the portfolio. Remember that this stock is a play on the burgeoning autonomous driving space. Speaking of fantastic opportunities, the editor also took advantage of a couple other “incredible values” by adding Quidel Corp. (NASDAQ:QDEL) and Invitae Corp. (NYSE:NVTA). Read the full write-up for more on all of today’s moves.
Marijuana Innovators: The portfolio bought several names during the “clean sweep” of state legalization referendums back in November. One of those buys was GrowGeneration (NASDAQ:GRWG), an owner and operator of specialty retail hydroponic and organic gardening stores. Well, the move accomplished exactly what Dave wanted, but he’s not convinced it will continue with as much gusto moving forward. Therefore, the editor sold GRWG for a more than 90% return in less than five months. The full write-up has more on this move.
Have a Great Weekend!
Jim Giaquinto
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