Transcript

Dancing In The Dark. · ANGLES.

0:01
SPEAKER_00: Following Trump's latest flip-flop over the weekend as he continued
0:05
SPEAKER_00: to desperately search in vain for an off-ramp to the highly unpopular war
0:09
SPEAKER_00: that he started over five months ago, Iran accused him of psychological warfare.
0:15
SPEAKER_00: An exasperated Wall Street would probably agree.
0:19
SPEAKER_00: Traitors are dancing in the dark.
0:22
SPEAKER_00: Trying to get a handle on what the plans are, if any,
0:25
SPEAKER_00: for bringing this conflict and the resulting energy price volatility to a suitable
0:30
SPEAKER_00: and sustainable conclusion is proving impossible.
0:35
SPEAKER_00: And traders are forced to spend their time these days reacting
0:38
SPEAKER_00: to raging social media posts,
0:41
SPEAKER_00: as well as fantastical press releases and impromptu news conferences
0:45
SPEAKER_00: that are often jam-packed with utter nonsense and shameless lies.
0:50
SPEAKER_00: Oil prices tanked and interest rates eased after Trump's climb down
0:54
SPEAKER_00: from his frenzied apocalyptic threats,
0:57
SPEAKER_00: which had included promises of decapitation,
1:01
SPEAKER_00: offering support for both stocks and bonds,
1:03
SPEAKER_00: which both rallied hard when Wall Street opened on Monday and kept up
1:08
SPEAKER_00: a positive momentum all day.
1:11
SPEAKER_00: Big tech stocks enjoyed a particularly dazzling session with dip buyers going all in.
1:17
SPEAKER_00: The orgy of tech stock bargain hunting intensified on Tuesday,
1:22
SPEAKER_00: boosted by a sensational pre-market earnings report from both Palantir
1:27
SPEAKER_00: and giant AI beneficiary Caterpillar.
1:30
SPEAKER_00: And the indexes,
1:31
SPEAKER_00: especially the tech-heavy Nasdaq,
1:34
SPEAKER_00: experienced another fabulous session with the S&P 500 index notching
1:39
SPEAKER_00: a new all-time record high for the first time since June 2nd.
1:45
SPEAKER_00: After the close, SpaceX,
1:46
SPEAKER_00: thus far a total dumpster fire of an investment that has essentially been
1:50
SPEAKER_00: in freefall for almost its entire existence as a publicly traded stock,
1:55
SPEAKER_00: reported almost half a billion dollars in losses in Q2
2:00
SPEAKER_00: and colossal AI spending plans.
2:03
SPEAKER_00: And AMD surprised Wall Street with a weak outlook.
2:07
SPEAKER_00: Both stocks got slammed.
2:11
SPEAKER_00: Trump assured us of a deal with Iran within hours,
2:15
SPEAKER_00: but Wall Street wasn't going to fall for that again.
2:18
SPEAKER_00: And when markets opened on Wednesday,
2:20
SPEAKER_00: the dip buyers took a breather and stocks cooled off,
2:23
SPEAKER_00: despite solid earnings and bright outlooks from heavyweights Eli Lilly and Disney.
2:30
SPEAKER_00: The indexes all pulled back a little bit by the close.
2:34
SPEAKER_00: After all of Trump's bombastic fanfare,
2:36
SPEAKER_00: for the umpteenth time, a promised resolution failed to materialize.
2:41
SPEAKER_00: Indeed, in the end,
2:42
SPEAKER_00: the U.S.
2:43
SPEAKER_00: was not even party to the only announced deal of the day,
2:47
SPEAKER_00: as Iran and Oman agreed on a proposed Strait of Hormuz toll-based shipping route,
2:53
SPEAKER_00: which excludes U.S. and Israeli vessels.
2:57
SPEAKER_00: 2026's best-performing stock, up 350%, Sandisk,
3:04
SPEAKER_00: Missed lofty earnings estimates after the bell and got spanked.
3:08
SPEAKER_00: The effect was felt in Asia where the tech-heavy South Korean market crashed again.
3:14
SPEAKER_00: Also on Wall Street's mind on Thursday was the upcoming employment data and
3:19
SPEAKER_00: the fallout and attempted damage control from the badly botched start to the reign
3:24
SPEAKER_00: of Fed Chairman Kevin Walsh,
3:27
SPEAKER_00: including the rather alarming revelation that Trump has been constantly calling him
3:32
SPEAKER_00: since his appointment.
3:34
SPEAKER_00: The early-week monster rally continued to run out of steam,
3:38
SPEAKER_00: and for the second session in a row, the indexes crows fractionally lower.
3:44
SPEAKER_00: The jobs report on Friday morning was a complicated puzzle,
3:48
SPEAKER_00: with shockingly negative net job creation in the month of July and wages continuing
3:54
SPEAKER_00: to lag inflation,
3:56
SPEAKER_00: but the shrinking overall workforce meant that the unemployment rate actually fell
4:00
SPEAKER_00: to 4.1%.
4:03
SPEAKER_00: Bets on a Fed rate hike in September were pared back,
4:07
SPEAKER_00: so interest rates sank somewhat and stocks and bonds bounced on the news,
4:12
SPEAKER_00: with the S&P 500 again returning to all-time record high territory to close out
4:18
SPEAKER_00: a very solid week, the index's best five-day showing since April.
4:25
SPEAKER_00: Some other things I'm thinking about.
4:27
SPEAKER_00: Despite last week's tech recovery,
4:30
SPEAKER_00: it is large cap quality value focused stocks and profitable small caps
4:35
SPEAKER_00: that are currently paying investors to take equity risk from
4:39
SPEAKER_00: a valuation perspective.
4:41
SPEAKER_00: While tech heavy AI sensitive growth focus names from unprofitable small firms
4:46
SPEAKER_00: to mega cap companies are not really rewarding risk right now.
4:52
SPEAKER_00: The biggest portfolio downside risk clearly lies with the NASDAQ,
4:57
SPEAKER_00: where there is no real cushion left if the AI spending narrative stumbles again,
5:02
SPEAKER_00: or if the 10-year Treasury yield starts threatening to break through 5% again.
5:09
SPEAKER_00: Meme stock investors,
5:10
SPEAKER_00: who still rely on TikTok and YouTube nonsense for their investment advice,
5:15
SPEAKER_00: continue to hemorrhage money.
5:17
SPEAKER_00: With GameStop last week falling to its lowest level in years.