THE BULL MARKET JUST PASSED ANOTHER TEST August is officially in the books. And despite a weak final session, the bulls have plenty to celebrate. $S&P 500(.SPX)$ : +2.6%. $NASDAQ(.IXIC)$ : +3.9%. Dow: +1.3% The S&P 500 and Nasdaq just had their best August since 2021. Even more impressive? The Dow has now risen in 15 of the last 16 months, something not seen since 1936. That's not a normal market. That's a market that has repeatedly found buyers. BUT NOW COMES SEPTEMBER And history is about to get involved. Since 1928, September has historically been the S&P 500's worst month, averaging roughly: S&P 500: -1.1%. Dow: -1.1%. Nasdaq: -0.8%. Russell 2000: -0.5% Of course, history doesn't pred

WARSH SENT A VERY CLEAR MESSAGE Kevin Warsh didn't come to Jackson Hole to reassure markets. He came to remind them that inflation is still the problem. His message was blunt: 65 months of elevated inflation. And despite two years of progress, the improvement has been… modest. Even worse for equity bulls, Warsh said the latest CPI and PCE numbers haven't convinced him that underlying inflation has meaningfully improved. That was enough. RATE-HIKE ODDS JUST EXPLODED Before Warsh's speech: September hike probability: 35% After the speech: 58% Rate That's a massive repricing in a single day. Treasury yields moved higher. Rate-sensitive technology stocks got hit. And $NVIDIA(NVDA)$, after exploding +8.7% following earnings, gave back much of the move,

Yesterday's rally wasn't really a market-wide rally. It was a semiconductor rally. And that distinction matters. The numbers looked constructive: Dow +0.30%. $S&P 500(.SPX)$ +0.32%. $NASDAQ(.IXIC)$ +0.66% But underneath the surface, something more interesting happened. Semiconductors did the heavy lifting. The iShares Semiconductor ETF gained +1.6%, while technology was the best-performing major sector. $Philadelphia Semiconductor Index(SOX)$ After seven consecutive sessions of tech weakness, investors suddenly stepped back into the AI trade.And now we know why. NVIDIA REPORTS TODAY. Nvidia THIS ISN'T JUST AN NVIDIA EARNINGS REPORT

The Market Is Stuck. Nvidia Holds the Key. But Watch Out. This week, bonds called the shots. Next week, all eyes turn to **Jensen Huang** and his AI empire. Since the last earnings report, $NVIDIA(NVDA)$ stock has gone nowhere. Yet options markets are pricing in a ±5.3% swing by Friday’s close. That’s a $562 billion market cap move, up or down. NVDA The Bull Case: Everything Looks Perfect Nvidia carries a 7.6% weight in the S&P 500. Its forward P/E has cooled to ~20, way below the 5-year average of 63. The stock hasn’t rallied into earnings, less risk of a "buy the rumor, sell the news" flush. On paper, Nvidia has everything it needs to reignite the broader market. But Here’s the Catch, According to Bespoke Nvidia is a "triple-play king": Beat

Wall Street went from relief to reality in less than 24 hours. Wednesday brought a Treasury-driven rally. Thursday brought the reminder investors didn't want to hear: The bond market still has the upper hand. The Dow plunged 698 points. The $S&P 500(.SPX)$ dropped 0.87%. The $NASDAQ(.IXIC)$ lost 1.00%. And the real warning wasn't the equity selloff. It was Treasury yields moving higher again. THE 30-YEAR TREASURY IS BACK IN THE SPOTLIGHT Yields After Wednesday's Treasury buyback announcement briefly calmed bond markets, yields reversed higher. 30-year Treasury: 5.25%. 10-year Treasury: 4.70% And that's the key message. Treasury buybacks may improve liquidity. But they don't magically solve the struct

After two ugly sessions, Wall Street finally caught a break. Three completely different catalysts suddenly aligned: A blockbuster biotech surprise A more dovish interpretation of the Fed A major Treasury move that pushed bond yields lower Dow: +0.22%. $S&P 500(.SPX)$ : +0.21%. $NASDAQ(.IXIC)$ Not a huge rally. But the message underneath it is much more interesting: When yields fall, risk appetite can come back very quickly. MODERNA JUST DID SOMETHING ALMOST UNHEARD OF The day's biggest story was $Moderna, Inc.(MRNA)$ . Shares exploded: +177. That's extraordinary. Positive interim Phase 3 results for a cancer vaccine. Moderna became only the second stock in

Stocks are now 0-for-2 this week. Market And once again, the same three forces are driving the market: Bond yields Oil prices Semiconductor weakness $Philadelphia Semiconductor Index(SOX)$ The Nasdaq took the biggest hit, falling 1.33%. But the real story isn't simply that tech sold off. It's that the market is beginning to question whether the AI trade has become too crowded, and too expensive. TECH TAKES ANOTHER HIT Tuesday's numbers: $NASDAQ(.IXIC)$ : -1.33%. $S&P 500(.SPX)$ : -0.69%. Dow Jones: -0.22% Technology was the worst-performing major sector, falling 1.9%. $Technology Select Sector SPDR Fund(XLK)$ And sem

Another sleepy August session. The major indexes slipped. Trading volume was thin. Most stocks barely moved. But underneath the surface, three important stories are developing: SOX Semiconductors are back in a bull market. $Philadelphia Semiconductor Index(SOX)$ Oil is climbing again. The 30-year Treasury yield just hit a level not seen since 2007. That combination deserves attention. THE MARKET LOOKED WEAK, BUT THE DETAILS MATTER Monday's numbers: Dow Jones: -0.51%. $S&P 500(.SPX)$ : -0.52%. $NASDAQ(.IXIC)$ : -0.32% At first glance, nothing dramatic. But trading volume tells the real story. Only 13.83 billion shares changed hands. The year-to-date average,

The S&P 500 pulled back slightly from its record high on Friday. But don't mistake a quiet session for a weak market. The index just posted its third consecutive weekly gain. And perhaps the most interesting number right now isn't the S&P 500. It's the VIX. At 14.25, volatility has fallen to its lowest level since December. Wall Street is almost… too comfortable. ANOTHER WEEK, ANOTHER GAIN $S&P 500(.SPX)$ : -0.17%. $NASDAQ(.IXIC)$ : -0.28% and Dow Jones: -0.20% But zoom out. The S&P 500 has now delivered three straight weeks of gains and remains close to record territory. More importantly, investors barely reacted to several potentially negative headlines. Retail sales unexpectedly decli

The S&P 500 just hit another record high. And investors are celebrating. But the reason is more interesting than the headline. Inflation is cooling. The Fed is under less pressure to hike. And Wall Street is betting the economy can keep running hot. The question is: How long can this perfect setup last? ANOTHER RECORD FOR THE S&P 500 $S&P 500(.SPX)$ : +0.65% Nasdaq: +0.81% Dow Jones: +0.13% The S&P 500 recorded its 27th record close of the year. And this wasn't just a handful of stocks pushing the index higher. Most S&P 500 sectors finished in positive territory, with technology leading the charge. Chip stocks and software names were particularly strong. The summer rally is alive. $NVIDIA(

Wall Street got the inflation report it wanted. But don't confuse "better" with "problem solved." July CPI came in softer, stocks moved higher, and investors breathed a sigh of relief. The bigger question is: Did inflation finally break… or are we simply getting a temporary pause? THE CPI REPORT GAVE BULLS WHAT THEY NEEDED Inflation July headline CPI rose just 0.1% month over month, bringing annual inflation down to: 3.4% vs. 3.5% in June. Core CPI also cooled: 2.5% YoY vs. 2.6% previously. That's exactly the kind of report equity investors wanted. And the market responded: Nasdaq: +0.54% $S&P 500(.SPX)$ : +0.26% The S&P 500 finished just below its recent record. Dow Jones: -0.04% AI STOCKS ADDED ANOTHER BOOST Inflation wasn't the only cat

Wall Street barely moved on Tuesday. Not because investors don't care. Quite the opposite. Everyone is waiting for one number. Today's CPI report could determine whether the recent stock-market rally has room to run, or whether inflation is about to bring the Fed back into focus. THE CALM BEFORE THE CPI STORM CPI Tuesday was a classic summer session: Dow Jones: -0.34% $S&P 500(.SPX)$ : -0.32% $NASDAQ(.IXIC)$ : -0.60% $NVIDIA(NVDA)$ $Microsoft(MSFT)$ $Apple(AAPL)$ $Alphabet(GOOGL)$ 10-Year Treasury Yield: 4.69% Thin volume. Small

The U.S. economy lost 23,000 jobs in July. Economists were expecting roughly 80,000–95,000 new jobs. And yet… The $S&P 500(.SPX)$ hit a new record high. The Nasdaq jumped 1.3%. Treasury yields fell. So why did Wall Street celebrate a weak jobs report? Because right now, bad economic news is being interpreted as good news for stocks. And that tells us something very important about the market. THE LABOR MARKET JUST SENT A WARNING The July payroll report wasn't simply weaker than expected. It missed expectations by a huge margin. The economy lost 23,000 jobs. Even more concerning: NFP May and June payrolls were revised down by a combined 103,000 jobs. Meanwhile, labor-force participation continues to decline. So beneath the headline unemployment