Get Irked Week in Review – Episode 23

January 21-25, 2019

We’re in the weeds of No Man’s Land as trade negotiations between the U.S. and China quieted down and the White House continues to battle Congress over the government shutdown.

Friday’s agreement to fund the government for three weeks may extend the current market upward movement assuming we get no negative news, of course.

Meanwhile, earnings season is mixed to mostly positive with many companies reporting better-than-feared quarterly earnings. 

The result?

A S&P 500 weekly range of about 2.5% from its low to its high (compared with last week’s 4.12% range and ~3% the week prior). The S&P ended the week dipping less than 0.5%.

All this creates slightly-positive market movement with really shaky undercurrents if any bad news comes down the pike – overreactions in either direction are definitely the name of the game now.

Here’s what happened this week:  

Market News

• The White House and Congress continue to battle over the government shutdown. Trump refuses to a deal without money for the border wall and Congress refuses to approve a deal with money for the border wall. An agreement to fund the government for 3 weeks is good for our unpaid Federal workers, but how do YOU define “stalemate?”

• IBM ($IBM) blew the doors off the joint with great earnings, popping 7% after showing Wall Street it may still know how to make a profit.

• Intel ($INTC) whiffed their earnings and saw a 5%+ pullback in their stock. Despite their bad report, the other semiconductor stocks went flying as hedge fund managers bailed on safety trades in favor of growth movers.

• Tesla ($TSLA) announced staff cutbacks last week which caused the bottom to drop out, collapsing from over $340 to under $300 in less than a week worth of trading. Analysts predict we’ll see $250 in the stock again, putting it in a pretty solid – if not incredibly wide – trading range of bouncing from $250 to $350 and back again.

Get Irked Updates

• We didn’t have a lot to say this week as the market action played out exactly as we predicted with generally sideways movement.

• Stick to your gameplan and don’t feel FOMO over missing the upward action. We still think we’ll see the market retrace at least some of the epic gains its seen since the bottom in December.

• Keep some powder dry and get ready to buy up some deals and/or take advantage of the run and take some profits to dry up some cash. Cash may not be king, but it’s definitely useful to have when you want to stock up on your winners.

Trades in Play

• We revamped our website: we’re now releasing our Trades in Play right here on www.getirked.com!

• We were actually INCREDIBLY busy in the markets this week so stay tuned later this weekend to see exactly what we were up to over the last week. Also, feel free to give your two cents by leaving comments or questions!