To The Moon

The stock market on Thursday (19 Sep) gave a decisive strong performance. The S&P 500 up +1.70% and DJIA up +1.26% both reached new all-time highs, while NASDAQ recorded the highest +2.51%.

Thursday rally responded to decision by FOCM on Wednesday to cut the target rate for the fed funds rate by 50 basis points to 4.75-5.00%.

Thursday's gains also reflected a belief that the economy is in good shape and the Fed will cut rates as needed to maintain a solid economic backdrop.

And Thursday economic data also supported this optimistic view. Weekly jobless claims remain steady below recession-like levels. The Philadelphia Fed Index tipped back into expansion (i.e., above 0.0 reading) in September. Existing home sales were slightly below expectations in August but still reflected a tight market.

These report suggest that what Fed Chair has suggested that the likelihood of a recession or downturn in the economy is elevated. More inventory is becoming available with mortgage rates dropping, but we are still seeing a tight market, evidenced by the ongoing increase in the median home price.

This is on top of a low initial claims data which suggest that labor market might be recovering.

Information Technology Sector Above 3%

Eight out of seven sectors closed in the positive green, with Information Technology and Consumer Discretionary closed above 2% with +3.08% and +2.20% respectively.

With the fear of missing out on further gains, we are seeing upside ride. This help to push the strength in the mega caps and chipmakers. The Vanguard Mega Cap Growth ETF (MGK) rose 2.5%, and the PHLX Semiconductor Index (SOX) jumped 4.3%.

The information sector was helped by the price action from $Apple(AAPL)$ traded up +3.71% after T-Mobile's (TMUS) CEO indicated iPhone 16 sales in the first week were better than last year's models. The consumer discretionary, communication services with +1.88%, and industrials with +1.75% sectors were the next best performers.

Defensive-oriented sectors like utilities lost -0.57% and consumer staples lost -0.58%) underperformed today, reflecting a more risk-on vibe in the market.

Note Yield Closed Lower

The 10-year note yield closed two basis points lower at 3.713% while 2-year note yield was also lower by twelve basis points to 3.578%.

Stocks To Watch

$Advanced Micro Devices(AMD)$, Nvidia (NVDA), and several other semiconductor stocks saw significant gains after the Federal Open Market Committee decided to cut its benchmark interest rate by 50 basis points.

You can look at my earlier article on AMD: Potential Upside From AMD To Continue Due to Upbeat PC-Chip Trends

Nvidia, $Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing(TSM)$, Broadcom (AVGO), and Analog Devices (ADI) all climbed 5% by noon trading. Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) jumped 6%. Other semiconductor stocks such as Texas Instruments (TXN), Lattice Semiconductor (LSCC), NXP Semiconductors (NXPI), Microchip Technology (MCHP), and Qualcomm (QCOM) also experienced notable increases.

I would look at TSM because MACD is showing promising upside and the MTF is also providing strong uptrend, so I am expecting TSM to make another new highs by next week.

$Alphabet(GOOG)$ continued its gains for eight consecutive sessions, closing 1.5% higher at $163.24. The stock has gained nearly 17% year-to-date, reflecting strong investor confidence in the tech giant's profitability and growth prospects.

Though MACD is providing a clear upside for GOOG, but MTF suggest that we might see some correction and GOOG is trading near the short term MA, we need GOOG to trade well above the short term MA.

FedEx (FDX) reported Q1 Non-GAAP EPS of $3.60, missing estimates by $1.17, with revenue of $21.6 billion, down 0.5% year-over-year and missing by $310 million. The company revised its fiscal 2025 revenue and earnings forecasts and reaffirmed its forecast for capital spending of $5.2 billion, focusing on network optimization and efficiency improvements. FedEx expects earnings per diluted share of $17.90 to $18.90 before adjustments and $20.00 to $21.00 after excluding costs related to business optimization initiatives.

NextEra Energy (NEE) fell 3.1% after Jefferies initiated coverage with a Hold rating and an $87 price target. Despite being well-positioned to benefit from the increased demand for renewables, the shares have substantially outperformed and now trade at a 30%-plus premium to the average utility 2027 P/E. Meanwhile, NextEra Energy Partners (NEP) gained 3.3% as Jefferies initiated coverage with a Buy rating and a $28 price target.

$CrowdStrike Holdings, Inc.(CRWD)$ provided several financial updates at its annual cybersecurity event, maintaining its $10 billion ARR target for Fal.Con'24 despite near-term visibility challenges. Analyst Shrenik Kothari noted that contract extensions and deferred spending under its Customer Commitment Package are dampening some ARR momentum, with a $60 million impact for the back half of the year. However, CrowdStrike remains positive on long-term growth, particularly in cloud security and identity protection.

Though CRWD MACD has recently gave a crossover, but it trades below both short term and long term MA on the MTF and we might see some correction for CRWD, I would not go for short term trade, but we can look for longer term

But we need to monitor if CRWD can trade above the longer term MA.

Texas Instruments (TXN) announced a 4.6% increase in its quarterly dividend to $1.36 per share, with a forward yield of 2.62%. The dividend is payable on November 12 for shareholders of record on October 31. This increase comes as part of the company's ongoing strategy to return value to shareholders.

Summary

I think the strong decisions by investors should continue today (20 Sep) but there might be some actions on these 2 stocks, Palantir and Dell. Today might be the time where investors would find opportunities to get into these 2 stocks before they are added to S&P 500.

I am not watching these 2 stocks because there might be some volatility.

Appreciate if you could share your thoughts in the comment section whether you think market would continue to give strong performance on decisive view on Fed interest rate cut.

@TigerStars @Daily_Discussion @Tiger_Earnings @TigerWire appreciate if you could feature this article so that fellow tiger would benefit from my investing and trading thoughts.

Disclaimer: The analysis and result presented does not recommend or suggest any investing in the said stock. This is purely for Analysis.