The market ended the best week in a year last Friday as the upside momentum created after the election continued for another day.

Once again, this upside rally continued for the third day yesterday with the S&P and Nasdaq achieving further new record highs once again.

In a stunning upside follow-through to Tuesday’s huge upside move, the Dow, S&P and Nasdaq all pushed to new all-time highs yesterday, as various parts of the market reacted to the final election results from the day before.

Finally, the market opened higher yesterday and was able to go the distance and ended on a very high note on the day of the election. Usually the market tended to come lower after a start of this type, so I assume that it anticipated what would happen today.

The nearly unanimous expectation is for the Federal Reserve to cut its main interest rate by a quarter of a percentage point on Thursday. But the weaker-than-expected jobs report wiped out the slim chance traders had been seeing of the Fed holding rates steady, according to data from CME Group.

The Fed began its rate-cutting program in September with a larger-than-usual cut of half a percentage point, as it turns more attention to keeping the job market solid instead of focusing on just driving inflation lower.

In another mixed day for the markets, there were all kinds of discrepancies with the Dow ending lower by 154 points to 42,233 as CAT, CVX, HD, JPM, TRV, and UNH all went lower while the S&P ended 9 points higher to 5833 even though the majority of stocks in this index were negative. This pattern was something we had seen earlier this year as strong gains by major technology stocks overwhelmed the others. This was most noticeable in the Nasdaq which ended higher by 145 to 18,712 at a record as gains in META, MSFT, AVGO, NFLX, AMZN plus others all did well.

The S&P finished 15 points higher to 5823 but it also gave back a good part of its gains as those financials plus some large technology stocks led the way. The Nasdaq ended 48 points higher to 18,567 but the NDX, which is influenced by the large tech issues, actually ended slightly lower as MSFT, MVDA, NFLX and TSLA sold off, and the last one was interesting because it failed once again over 270 after Friday’s options-related ending and now has more to go to attain better prices than this level.

The Russell 2000 Index of small stocks did well on strength in some regional banks to end with a 36 point gain to2244 while the VIX dropped once again to 19.8 as it continues to disappoint the bullish participants here as a large skid in oil-and-gas stocks after the price of crude had its biggest drop in more than a year.

The market ended widely mixed on Friday after the Dow got hit for a 260 point decline down to 42,114 and this was due to selling in GS, HD, IBM again, MCD and TRV while the S&P turned a 50 point early gain into a nominal closing loss of 2 points to 5808 mainly due to weakness in the large financials mentioned above.

In the process, both indices gave up on their six straight weekly advances, while the Nasdaq took over the leadership with a 103 point gain to 18,518 for its seventh straight weekly gain led by good gains in the larger technology issues ahead of a large number of major stocks in this area this coming week (see list below).

The market ended in a mixed finish yesterday as the Dow went lower because of negative results from a few components while the Nasdaq did well mainly on the best showing for beaten-down TSLA in 11 years.

The former drifted to a 140 point lower close to 42,374, its fourth straight decline this week primarily due to high-flying IBM getting taken down for its worst one-day showing in six months after a weak earnings report, in addition to selling in HON and always volatile UNH.

The S&P gained 12 points to 5810 as it got help from TSLA, in addition to AMZN, NVDA, META and the large financial components. The Nasdaq did the best of all with a 139 point advance to 18,415 due to that tremendous upside explosion in beaten-down TSLA, in addition to some other technology leaders. Their optimistic CEO also predicted 20% to 30% sales growth next year, though its revenue for the latest quarter fell short of analysts’ forecasts.

This resulted in its break of a three-day losing streak since early September as it bounced between losses and gains through the day, and it was roughly evenly split between stocks rising and falling.

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Momentum has reversed for stocks this week as pressure has increased from rising Treasury yields. Higher yields can make investors less willing to pay high prices for stocks, which critics say already look too expensive after they rose faster than corporate profits.

Dow component MCD helped pull the market lower and dropped 5% after federal health officials linked its Quarter Pounder burgers with an E. coli outbreak that has affected at least 49 people in 10 states. Investigators are still trying to find what specific ingredient is contaminated, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the company stopped using fresh slivered onions and quarter pound beef patties in several states while the investigation is ongoing. E. coli food poisoning linked to their Quarter Pounder hamburgers has sickened at least 49 people in 10 states, including one person who died and 10 who were hospitalized, federal health officials said.

Even though the main stock indexes ended with very small changes at the end of the session yesterday, there was plenty going on within the indices themselves.  

For instance, the Dow had been ahead by more than 100 points just after 2pm but then collapsed at the end of the session to close with a 7 point decline to 42,924 and this took place was MCD got blasted lower due to reports of E-coli contamination in its quarter-pound meals which have been so widely promoted lately, and this has taken place mainly in the midwestern part of the U.S

Even on days when things start out sharply lower and end mainly down, there are always bright spots on the horizon, as per yesterday when the stock indexes mainly remained lower, there was a strong bright spot when some influential large-cap technology stocks really did well. And as a result, the Nasdaq actually ended higher with the most important stock of all, NVDA, breaking through its long-time resistance level of 140 and busting well above that price.

Once that took place, those who had successfully sold at that level were now forced to buy back their negative positions and buy at the market which pushed its close to a new high of 143.71.

The Nasdaq Composite did the best of all with a 116 point gain up to 18,489 led by the three aforementioned stocks plus additional help from GOOG and ASML which finally picked itself up from the floor after a poor earnings report earlier in the week.

The Russell 2000 Index of small stocks eased back by 5 points to 2276 after having done better earlier in the weekly session while the VIX got knocked back to 18.03 despite the fruitless attempts of buyers to push it to what appear to be unrealistic levels based on ostensible Middle Eastern tensions.

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Companies in the chip industry were some of the market’s strongest after global heavyweight TSMC reported a bigger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. TSMC credited strong demand related to smartphones and artificial intelligence, and its stock that trades in the United States jumped by 10%.

It was a sharp turnaround from earlier in the week when a warnings from a major Dutch supplier, ASML sent stocks sinking across the industry. NVDA’s of 0.9% was Thursday’s strongest single force pushing upward on the S&P.‍

But a 1.4% slide for Google’s parent company, Alphabet, and a 10.6% tumble for ELV helped keep stock indexes in check.

MS rallied after reporting stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. CEO Ted Pick said the investment bank enjoyed a “constructive environment” in its businesses around the world. And with stock prices near records, it is managing even more money for clients.  

UAL rose 12% after reporting a narrowed drop in summer profit than expected and announcing plans to send up to $1.5 billion to its shareholders by buying back its stock. JBHT gained 3% after the freight company delivered better-than-expected results.  

Crude prices have been weakening as China’s flagging economic growth raises concerns about demand for oil. At the same time, worries have receded about Israel possibly attacking Iranian oil facilities as part of its retaliation against Iran’s missile attack early this month. Iran is a major producer of crude, and a strike could upend its exports to China and elsewhere.  

Stocks for companies across the chip industry fell after Dutch supplier ASML reported its latest quarterly results. Its CEO said A.I. continues to offer strong upside potential, but “other market segments are taking longer to recover,” and ASML’s stock trading in the United States fell by 16%.  

The strongest action in global markets came from China, where the finance minister gave plans for the world’s second-largest economy. The government is looking at additional ways to boost the economy but stopped short of unveiling a major new stimulus plan that investors were hoping for. This is the reason the group is selling off sharply once again today.

The Nasdaq rose by 60 to 18,342 with the likes of some technology issues doing well but was restrained by the awful performance of TSLA after its farcical robotaxi outlook and the taking down of its founder who basically looked “lost” in his explanations. But the index was helped again by the shipping issues while the Russell 2000 really made a large gain of 46 to 2334, mainly due to the positive effect of the entire financial group. And the always “troubling” VIX dropped again down to a historically more normal 20.46 with two days to go in some really high-priced calls which do not seem to be able to be reached in the short-term.

These ongoing equity index gains are consistent with the fact that third-quarter profit growth is currently estimated to be higher by 4% and a much stronger gain of around 14% for the fourth-quarter of this year.

Thursday’s report showed inflation slowed to 2.4% in September from 2.5% in August, according to the consumer price index, but economists were expecting an even sharper slowdown to 2.3%. And after ignoring the swings for food, gasoline and other energy prices, underlying trends that economists say can be a better predictor for where inflation is heading were a touch hotter than expected.

At the same time, a separate report showed 258,000 U.S. workers filed for unemployment benefits last week. That number is relatively low compared with history, but it was a sharper acceleration than economists expected. Hurricane Helene and the strike by workers at BA may have helped make the number look worse.

In the bond market, Treasury yields rose immediately after the release of the economic data, only to then swing up and down as traders tried to handicap what it would all mean for the Fed.

Leading the way were cruise-ship companies, whose customers stand to benefit from the surprisingly strong U.S. job market. In addition to RCLH, other gainers in this area were CCL and RCG.  

HELE, the company behind Hydro Flask water bottles and OXO kitchen tools, jumped 18% after reporting profit and revenue for the latest quarter that were better than analysts expected. That was even though the company said it is still seeing customers feeling increasingly stretched amid lingering inflation.