The market is pretty simple right now. All it wants is tax reform…but getting anything done in Congress has proven to be more difficult than originally thought. But today, the U.S. Senate passed a budget resolution, which could be the first real step toward that elusive goal. Needless to say, the market ended the week in a good mood with new all-time highs for each of the major indices.
The Dow was the real star of the week. The index soared past 23,000 for the first time and hasn’t looked back. It was up another 0.71% on Friday to 23,328.6. The S&P climbed 0.51% to 2575.2. Both of these indices just completed a sixth straight week of gains. The NASDAQ advanced 0.36% to 6629.1 for a fourth consecutive week in the green.
As for the weekly total, the Dow jumped 2%, while the S&P and NASDAQ advanced 0.9% and 0.4%, respectively.
In the portfolios, Brian Bolan cashed a triple-digit winner in Home Run Investor and also added a new name to Stocks Under $10. Meanwhile, TAZR Trader bought as well. The highlights section below has more on these moves, along with news on the S&P’s “Perfect Week” in Counterstrike.
Today's Portfolio Highlights:
Home Run Investor: BIG winner for the portfolio on Friday as Abiomed (ABMD) was sold for a gain of more than 230%! The funny thing is that Brian Bolan bought this name two years ago during his first stint as editor of HRI, and it was still waiting for him when he took over from Dave this week. This medical devices company was about $50 when first bought, and Brian felt it could get up to $100 at the time. Today it closed at nearly $175. He’s booking the triple-digit gain and looking to add again next week. Read the full write-up for more.
TAZR Trader: Shares of United Rentals (URI) moved higher again after a strong quarterly report this week. The chart is telling Kevin that this equipment rental company is ready to break above $147 and then some, so he bought a 7% allocation in URI on Friday. The company believes that market activity will exceed normal seasonality in the current quarter. And with solid GDP growth and a tax reform bill hopefully on its way, the editor wouldn’t be surprised to see URI reach $160 after some consolidation between $140 and $150. Learn a lot more about this new addition in the full write-up.
Stocks Under $10: The portfolio is moving back to the oil patch for its latest addition, as Brian Bolan believes that oil and energy plays are finally ready to start an upswing. He chose to add Bill Barrett (BBG) on Friday, which is an oil production company that is directly tied to the price of oil. The editor believes that “strength in crude will translate to strength in BBG”. He also likes the company’s two consecutive positive earnings surprises and the narrowing loss estimates for this quarter and this year. Read the full commentary for more.
Counterstrike: "Until today I have never traded a “Perfect Week”. That phrase was actually new to me until Josh Brown was on CNBC today talking about how we will achieve a “Perfect Week” with a green close today. A perfect week is simply a green day, every day during the week, which made new all-time highs each day. With a green close today, the S&P had its first perfect week since 1998. That was before I started trading, meaning this was my first perfect week ever.
"This doesn’t happen often, only 17 times over the last 90 years. Even more telling about this market, 94% of the time, the market heads higher after a perfect week.
"The reasoning for the move higher today was that the Senate adopted a fiscal 2018 budget resolution. This action is viewed as one step closer to Trump’s tax cuts. Last night futures ripped higher on the news.
"The last two days have shown us the bulls are not even close to being done. Yesterday’s intraday reversal, followed by todays strong up move, really has to have any shorts left completely throwing in the towel. I have been looking for a pull back, but it’s simply wrong. At some point we will see one, but for now we are witnessing one of the strongest markets ever." -- Jeremy Mullin
Have a Great Weekend,
Jim Giaquinto
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