Markets Climb, Warnings Flash, and AI Stocks Steal the Show
Wall Street rallied again last week, but don’t get too cozy — this market's smiling with one eye open.
Welcome to Staten News, your favorite flavor of finance with extra edge. This is Monday Blues — caffeine for your portfolio and clarity for your watchlist. Let’s get into it.
📊 Market Recap: Bounce or Bull Run?
Markets just wrapped a sixth straight green week — not a typo. Despite Moody’s deciding the U.S. is a little too comfortable with debt and slapping a credit downgrade on us, investors said, “Cool story,” and kept buying.
S&P 500 (SPY): Closed at $594.20, up 0.66%
Dow Jones (DIA): Up 0.75%, flirting with all-time highs
Nasdaq (QQQ): Up 0.45%, led by (surprise!) more AI mania
Investors shrugged off macro fears and dove into earnings beats, cooling inflation signals, and — maybe most notably — the U.S./China 90-day tariff truce. That little nugget helped industrials and retailers breathe a bit.
But before you throw your bear suit in the trash, remember: rates are still sticky, the Fed still sounds like your cautious uncle, and oil is tiptoeing up again.
💥 Last Week’s Biggest Winners
🚀 Palantir (PLTR):
Up another 6% last week, and 56% YTD. The market is buying what their AI is selling — and yes, it’s spooky smart software for spooky government contracts.
🧠 CVS Health (CVS):
Who saw this coming? Strong earnings and expansion into primary care has CVS up nearly 49% this year. Big pharma? No — big pharmacy.
🌟 Philip Morris (PM):
New smoke, who dis? PM’s smokeless product pivot is paying off. Add 42% to the chart and call it reinvention.
🏆 Newmont Corp (NEM):
Gold glows when the Fed stalls. NEM’s up 41.5% YTD riding that golden wave.
🔐 VeriSign (VRSN):
A quiet winner. Up 36.3% YTD, thanks to domain registration strength and steady web infrastructure growth.
😬 Biggest Losers
🥾 Deckers Outdoor (DECK):
Down 45.4% YTD. Apparently, you can overproduce UGGs.
🔌 Teradyne (TER):
Down 41%. When chip testing demand slows, so does this stock.
🛳 Norwegian Cruise Line (NCLH):
Down nearly 38%. Cruise demand isn’t sinking, but margins sure are.
⚡ ON Semiconductor (ON):
The chip hype didn’t save this one. Supply chain pains dragged ON down 37% this year.
🧪 Charles River Labs (CRL):
Biotech servicing just isn’t hot right now. CRL is down 35% with little upside in sight.
🔮 The Look Ahead
💡 Watchlist Winners:
Nvidia (NVDA): Reports this week. If AI hype had a heartbeat, it’d be NVDA’s earnings call.
Palo Alto Networks (PANW): Cybersecurity earnings on deck — and rising threats could push them to breakout.
Target (TGT): Will it follow Walmart’s retail strength or fall into consumer weakness quicksand?
🚩 Stocks That Could Slip:
Tesla (TSLA): Still volatile. Any more robotaxi delays and the bears will feast.
Disney (DIS): Struggling to find a narrative. Streaming, parks, ESPN — where’s the growth?
Coinbase (COIN): Crypto’s cooling off again — not a great sign for transaction revenue.
🧠 Final Thought
Markets feel strong — but we’re running on confidence more than catalysts. If the Fed blinks or CPI spikes next month, this rally could wobble fast. That said, right now? The charts look good, tech is flexing, and the bulls are barking louder than the bears.
Keep your stops tight, your watchlist fresh, and your caffeine stocked.
— The Bandicoots 📉📈