Good MorningEquity markets advanced on Thursday, regaining some ground lost following the FOMC meeting. The market chose to focus on the fact that the FOMC is indicating another rate hike is off the table and that the next move, however long it takes, will be a rate cut. In this environment, the economic outlook is for improvement over the next twelve to eighteen months, which is a positive for equities. The S&P 500 may continue to move higher on Friday.
The risk today is the NFP report. The NFP is expected to show solid job gains and high wage inflation, leaving the FOMC no choice but to keep rates high. The risk is stagflation in this environment, as indicated by the Q1 GDP estimate. Stagflation is a period of low to no growth, rising prices, and tepid consumer spending; equity markets are unlikely to set new highs and hold them until growth accelerates. Featured: What Does $81,000 Buy You in Western Europe? This Couple Shows You. (Ad) 
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Healthcare | | Cannabis stocks reignited Tuesday afternoon after the U.S. Department of Justice announced that it would move to reclassify marijuana as a less dangerous drug. As a result of the breaking news, several leading cannabis stocks, like Tilray (NASDAQ: TLRY), Aurora Cannabis (NASDAQ: ACB), and Canopy Gro... Read the Full Story |
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From Our Partners | | The U.S. now borrows money just to pay interest on money it already borrowed, a pattern economists call a debt death spiral. Interest payments alone now top a trillion dollars a year.
The Social Security trust fund is projected to run dry by 2032, which could trigger an automatic 22% cut to benefits. Between 2020 and 2022, the Fed expanded the money supply by 41%.
A free 27 page report breaks down these numbers in plain English, including what central banks have been doing with gold. | | Download the free Debt Death Spiral report now |
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Communication Services | |
Despite notching a fresh all-time high less than a month ago, it’s been a tough couple of weeks for shares of Meta Platforms (NASDAQ: META). The tech giant was already starting to see its shares soften in the second half of April as the broader market began selling off, but they took an even... Read the Full Story |
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Finance | |
Are investors in the clear for the rest of 2024? The first quarter of the year, arguably the most important as it sets the tone for what could be in the works, shows investors some of the potentially growing cracks in the economy. It is the consumer staples sector that could become the next safe h... Read the Full Story |
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From Our Partners | | In April 2024, gold had gone nowhere for 13 years - then it surged to a record high, more than doubling in value.
Now gold has pulled back roughly 20%. Inflation is rising, the Fed is hiking rates, and government borrowing continues. Ross Givens says his long-term thesis still holds.
He points to a backdoor gold play that ran 846%, 1,668%, and 1,915% in the last major cycle. | | See the one gold trade Ross Givens recommends making right now |
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Finance | |
After reporting its first quarter 2024 earnings results, arguably the most important as they set the tone for the rest of the year, shares of Zillow Group Inc. (NASDAQ: Z) are trading lower by as much as 12% in the after-market hours following the announcement. While markets have enough evidence t... Read the Full Story |
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Technology | |
When you believe a stock will rise, you can leverage a trade with stock options. Notably, taking call options is the obvious choice. After all, call options rise when the underlying stock price rises. However, if the stock doesn’t rise but instead falls, the call options can lose value fast ... Read the Full Story |
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From Our Partners | | When Moonshot AI's new model rattled overnight markets, stocks gapped down 1 percent before the open, and history shows the story doesn't end there.
Between 9 30 and 9 50 AM, Wall Street settles nearly 25 percent of the day's total volume in a single 20 minute window, often revealing market direction for the rest of the morning.
A former money manager breaks down the floor data behind this pattern, including a June 25th session where inflation surged past 4 percent and the market moved just 0.3 percent afterward. | | Watch the full video breakdown before access is taken down |
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Consumer Discretionary | |
Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX) is one of many consumer-forward businesses that indicate weakness in the consumer. McDonald’s (NYSE: MCD) and Kraft Heinz (NASDAQ: KHC) revealed tepid results in fast food and consumer staple products, suggesting the squeeze is real and consumer health flagging. The ... Read the Full Story |
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Consumer Staples | |
As tepid as Kraft Heinz's (NASDAQ: KHC) Q1 results and guidance for Q2 are, they aren’t bad. The results and guidance align with the company’s forecast for Q1 and the analysts' forecasts for Q1 and Q2, which are for steady business, a return to growth, and a widening margin. The compan... Read the Full Story |
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Consumer Discretionary | |
Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE: YUM) is a global powerhouse in the quick-service restaurant industry. Yum! Brands’ earnings report for the first quarter of 2024 was recently released, disappointing analysts. With a portfolio encompassing renowned brands such as KFC, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, and Habit ... Read the Full Story |
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Technology | |
Solar energy stocks haven’t been part of the market hype, which rallied to all-time highs in the past quarter after potentially pricing in the Federal Reserve’s (the Fed) interest rate cuts, which never came. One sector holding up its end of the performance bargain is energy, helping s... Read the Full Story |
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Technology | |
Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ: AMD) share prices inflated in 2023 and early 2024 on hopes for an AI boom like NVIDIA (NASDAQ: NVDA). The share price is down 35% from that peak because the boom didn’t happen, or did it? Unlike NVIDIA, Advanced Micro Devices is a highly diversified semiconduc... Read the Full Story |
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Friday's Early Bird Stock Of The Day RXO, Inc. provides full truckload freight transportation brokering services. It also offers brokered services for managed transportation, last mile, and freight forwarding. The company was incorporated in 2022 and is based in Charlotte, North Carolina. | | View Today's Stock Pick |
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