Earnings Season is coming to an end. Corporate America has turned in their report cards for Q4, which closes the books on 2025. Over 95% of the S&P 500 companies have reported. The results have been good. In fact, they’ve been outstanding. The blended year-over-year earnings growth rate for the S&P index of the 500 largest American companies is 13.2%. That marks the fifth consecutive quarter of double-digit growth. It’s been exceptional...

So much for a sleepy Friday. Those don’t seem to happen anymore. This week was eventful in many respects. I say this often, there’s plenty of material for me to cover on a weekly basis. Today was a particularly unique and eventful day. It moved Markets. It moved expectations. It moved moods. It went down like this:

A major milestone was reached on Wall Street; The Dow hit 50K. It didn’t stick. That’s not much of a surprise. The Market often back and fills after reaching new highs at big round numbers. 50K is definitely that. The achievement is significant in many ways. Stocks have rallied to start the year. And it’s been led by a new cast of characters. Tech is not one of them...

The Bulls got tested this week. The Bears were out for blood. It was like the Super Bowl for stocks on Wall Street. Heading into Friday, the Tech-heavy NAS was on track for its worst week since Obliteration Day back in April of ‘25. Silver lost over 1/3 of its value in the week. Bitcoin has been for sale all year, falling to levels last seen in 2024...

The price of Gold went parabolic. In fact, it’s been the case for pretty much all precious metals. The drivers are many: Ever-increasing geopolitical activity, sticky inflation, a weak Dollar and global institutions seeking alternatives to safe American assets. Gold went from $4k to $5K to $5500 seemingly in an instant...

Threats of more tariffs and taking Greenland knocked stocks downward to start the week. In fact, the 2% decliner on Tuesday was the worst day since October. Those losses reversed with word about a semblance of a deal. It’s still not clear what that means. Wall Street rejoiced, for a bit. Perhaps more accurately, it breathed a sigh of relief. Stocks slipped into the weekend mixed. Those all-time highs are not far from here. But there is some built-up, underlying angst out there. It’s very understandable. Issues tend to not go away easily...

What a week. It was quite eventful. That’s not new for the 2020s. It’s become the norm. But it was Market-moving. There’s plenty of innovation around. Robots took the stage. Controversy is always around. Geopolitical activity is grabbing headlines, all the while economic activity continues. Q4 Earnings Season has begun. All this and much more in another rapid rundown...

Happy New Year! The first half of the 2020s is complete. We have officially entered the second quarter of this 21st century. Can you believe it? Time sure flies...