Naive Trader

Markets opened with a rally on higher than expected Consumer Confidence and New Home Sales data. The rally faded late in the morning, weighed down by Facebook and worries over inflation.

Tesla led major indexes and the Consumer Discretionary sector higher today as it became the newest trillion-dollar company after announcing a 100k car order from Hertz. That sent EV stocks higher and kicked off a big earnings week with fresh optimism.

Despite consistent messages from Fed officials over the last few weeks, it took Jerome Powell’s confirmation on bond tapering to finally impact investors. It didn’t help that dismal earnings reports from Snap and IBM dampened optimism over the earnings season.

Investors continued the bullish rally on positive earnings reports, sending the S&P 500 to a new record close. However, it wasn’t all positive, with some companies taking a beating after disappointing results.

Positive earnings reports continue to move markets higher while big tech stocks took a breather for the day.

Investors remained bullish on Tuesday as earnings reports start to pick up, and analysts expect positive results. Indexes ticked higher while several sectors traded at record levels.

Weak GDP data from China wasn’t enough to break optimism for investors after last week’s surprise Retail Sales data. Indexes started lower but recovered with steady gains throughout the day.

Retail Sales jumped 0.7% in September compared to analysts’ expectation for a decline. That gave a massive boost to Consumer Discretionary stocks while the Financial sector topped a week of positive earnings reports with a huge beat from Goldman Sachs.

Even today’s worst-performing sector gained over one percent, marking a very bullish day with gains broad across the market. The Nasdaq had a 1.4 advance/decline ratio , while the New York Stock Exchange recorded a ratio of 3.6 advancers to decliners.

Investors moved past inflation data to mark a day of gains in the market, but caution was present with defensive sectors outperforming. There were no surprises in the Fed’s meeting minutes that confirmed a start to bond purchase tapering in November.