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Markets Bounce Back Behind Mag-7 Momentum

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Tuesday, October 8th, 2024

Major market indexes were in the green across the board today. After something of a palette cleanse Monday, which saw the indexes giving back near-term gains previously, the Nasdaq looks to break out to new levels from here. The tech-heavy index led the way higher — +259 points, +1.45% — followed by the S&P +0.97% and the blue-chip Dow +0.30%. The small-cap Russell collected a scant +0.17% on the session.

Return of the Magnificent 7 Stocks?


Earlier today, Zacks Strategist Tracey Ryniec released a new podcast from her Zacks Value Trader series, discussing which of the “Mag 7” stocks are still cheap enough to buy? It turned out to be a perfect day for such an account, and you can listen to it here.

Mag-7 stocks led the Nasdaq and S&P higher today, partly spearheaded by the Mag-7 leader earlier in the year, NVIDIA (NVDA - Free Report) . The GPU innovator and primary AI market play concluded its fifth-straight trading day higher, +4% for the session. Apparently, the demise of the AI trade has been greatly exaggerated.

NVIDIA shares are still off all-time highs set earlier in 2024, but have grown an outstanding +24% in the past month and +175% year to date — after growing more than +200% in full-year 2003! NVIDIA stock currently carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) rating with a Value-Growth-Momentum grade of C.

Oil, China, Boeing Head Lower


Talk of a cease fire between Israel and Hezbollah has managed to bring down spot oil prices. A -4.6% drop today has brought West Texas Intermediate (WTI) down below $74 per barrel and Brent crude prices beneath $78 per barrel. Yesterday, the one-year anniversary of the Hamas sneak attack on Israel, oil prices threatened to move notably higher, reaching above $80 per barrel.

The Chinese stimulus trade looks to have hit a dry patch today, after talk of a fresh package in the world’s second-largest economy failed to materialize. Alibaba (BABA - Free Report) shares fell more than -6% on the session, off yesterday’s peak in the stimulus play above $117 per share. Major Chinese companies like BABA are well off their record highs in 2020 and 2021.

After today’s close, Boeing (BA - Free Report) has been put on “Creditwatch Negative” by W&P, as its labor strike as of the end of this week will have lasted a full month. Costs to the business based on this strike are estimated to be around -$1 billion per month, as roughly 33K workers on the West Coast look for a better cut in its next pay contract. This is the first strike at the airplane-making giant in 16 years.

What to Expect Wednesday in the Stock Market


Tomorrow, we will see the minutes of the last Fed meeting — where the monetary policy body lowered interest rates for the first time since March 2020 — as well as appearances from more Fed members than you can shake a stick at. We already know a rate cut was unanimous; only one voting member preferred a 25 basis-point (bps) rate cut rather than the 50 bps we got.

We’ll also see Wholesale Inventories for August (expected to remain steady from the prior month at +0.2%) and fiscal Q2 results from beauty and wellness retailer Helen of Troy (HELE - Free Report) ahead of the opening bell. Things get cooking this week on Thursday, when September Consumer Price Index (CPI) numbers come out, including an updated Inflation Rate.

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