Magnificent Seven & Large Caps Lead Weekly Gains As Small Caps Pull Back – $AAPL $BTC $DECK $INVO $LTRN $NVDA Rise!

Happy Saturday!

I hope that you had a wonderful week and that you are enjoying a weekend with you and yours that is exceeding your expectations. 

After last week’s very significant jump in the markets, the broad markets this week saw the large caps continue to rise, albeit somewhat tempered and led my the highest weighted stocks, while the small & micro caps headed decidedly south. The earnings season rolled on and overall gave a decent showing, however the markets received yet another shot in the leg on Thursday from Fed Chair “Uncle Jerry Powell” when he shared during an IMF panel discussion the following, “The Federal Open Market Committee is committed to achieving a stance of monetary policy that is sufficiently restrictive to bring inflation down to 2 percent over time; we are not confident that we have achieved such a stance.” This statement led some to believe the Fed might actually raise rates again before the end of the year, which could put further and significant pressure on the US economy, jobs, and the housing markets to a degree that may cause significant harm.  Did you know that personal savings rates have dropped from 6% to 3.4% and consumers have increased their overall credit card debt to +$1 trillion as of the Q3 of 2023, which is the highest on record & that lending standards at the local bank remain very tight? Accordingly, the yield curve jumped significantly with the 2-yr yield moving up 19bps to 5.05% and the 10-yr moving from 4.51% to 4.63%. The U.S. Dollar Index also rose this week from 105.07 to 105.80. The CBOE Volatility Index (^VIX) pulled back again by 4.84% closing at $14.17 as it waffled around a bit, but basically stayed in pace after the +24% drop last week. On positive note and some led by increasing global growth concerns oil prices fell again by 4.1% (+9% over the last 2-wks) ending at $77.23/bbl and back in to the traditionally acceptable range ($60-$80).

A number of macroeconomic reports hit the presses again this week that included on Tuesday, the September Trade Balance report that came in at -$61.5B. The Consumer credit report revealed a $9B rise in September. On Wednesday, the Weekly MBA Mortgage Applications Index report came in at 2.5% & the September Wholesale Inventories report at .2%. On Thursday, the Weekly Initial Claims report came in higher at 217k and the Weekly Continuing Claims rose to 1.834M. On Friday, the Preliminary November University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Report came in lower at 60.4. 

At the end of the week, the Dow 30 closed at 34,283,10 (+.7%) this week and is now up 3.4% YTD.

The S&P 500 closed at 4,415.24 (+1.3%) for the week and is now up 15.0% YTD. 6 of the 11 sectors moved higher this week as the top two performing sectors were the information technology sector rising 4.8% and the communication services sector rising 2.2%, while the energy sector dropped 3.8%, the utilities sector fell 2.6%& the real estate lost 2.1%. 

The Nasdaq closed at 13,798.10 (+2.4) and is now up 31.8% YTD.  

The Magnificent Seven closed as follows over the last 5-days: Alphabet (GOOG) closing at $134.06, +1.80%, Amazon (AMZN) closing at $143.56, +3.58%, Apple (AAPL, $186.40, +5.52%), Meta Platforms (META) closing at $328.77, +4.50%, Microsoft (MSFT) closing at $369.67, +4.78%, NVIDIA (NVDA) closing at $483.35, +7.40% & Tesla (TSLA) closing at $214.65, -2.41%.

After the 7.6% jump last week, the small caps on the Russell 2000 closed at1,760.70 (-3.1%) for the week & is now down 3.2% YTD. The MicroCaps also moved significantly lower this week as the iShares Micro-Cap ETF (IWC) closed at $94.74, -3.77% this week, but is now down 12.14% YTD after establishing yet another new 52-wk low at $90.70 recently.

Bank stocks on the SPDR S&P Regional Banking ETF (KRE) fell back 5.16% over the last 5-days to close at $41.37and is now down 29.57% YTD & the SPDR S&P Bank ETF (KBE) also moved down 3.85% over the last 5-days to close at $36.97.

The Biotech sector took yet another hit this week.  The Nasdaq Biotechnology ETF (IBB) closed at $115.53, -3.56% over the last 5-days and is now down 12.00% YTD, the NYSE ARCA Biotech Index (^BTK) closed at 4,639.09, -3.34% over the last 5-days and is now down 12.16% YTD, & the SPDR S&P Biotech ETF (XBI) closed at $66.95, -6.31 over the last 5-days, & is now down 19.34% YTD. The 52-week range is is now $63.80-$92.60 after establishing a new 52-wk low this week.

Cathie Wood’s ARK Innovation ETF (ARKK) closed at $39.73, -1.76% over the last 5-days and is up 27.18% YTD.   

The iShares U.S. Healthcare ETF (IYH) closed at $263.14, -1.12% over the last 5-days and is now down 7.25% YTD.   

From the world of cryptocurrency, Bitcoin (BTC) moved to $37,147.98, +4.81% over the course of the last 5-days at the time of the completion of this message &  is up 118.08% over the last year.

Gold prices closed at $1,943 down from $1,997 over the last 5-days.  Silver prices closed at $22.31 up from $23.27 over the last 5-days. The Global X Silver ETF (SIL) closed at $22.305, -4% over the last 5-days.

VP Watchlist Updates

Thanks again for your attention this week. Please continue to share your thoughts, questions, & ideas as we move forward. 

In the meantime, please enjoy the balance of the weekly newsletter’s videos, quotes, updates and let’s find ways to crush it again as we move forward!

Investing & Inspiration

1. “We relish news of our heroes, forgetting that we are extraordinary to somebody too.” – Helen Hayes
2. “A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.” – George Bernard Shaw
3. “Everything in the world may be endured except continual prosperity.”  – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
4. “Nine-tenths of wisdom is being wise in time.” – Theodore Roosevelt
5. “Time is money.” – Benjamin Franklin
6. “Change before you have to.” – Jack Welch
7. “Our deeds determine us, as much as we determine our deeds.” – George Eliot
8. “The Universe is under no obligation to make sense to you.” – Neil deGrasse Tyson
9. “Care and diligence bring luck.” – Thomas Fuller
10. “Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little.” – Edmund Burke
11. “A man who is a master of patience is master of everything else.” – George Savile
12. “Once you replace negative thoughts with positive ones, you’ll start having positive results.” – Willie Nelson
13. “Endurance is nobler than strength, and patience than beauty.” – John Ruskin
14. “Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does.” – William James
15. “Let us be grateful to people who make us happy, they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.” –  Marcel Proust
16. “Strength and growth come only through continuous effort and struggle.” – Napoleon Hill
17. “Science may never come up with a better office communication system than the coffee break.” – Earl Wilson
18. “If everyone is moving forward together, then success takes care of itself.” – Henry Ford
19. “Hope is like the sun, which, as we journey toward it, casts the shadow of our burden behind us.”– Samuel Smiles
20. “Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it.” – Mark Twain
21. “What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything?” – Vincent Van Gogh
22. “The biggest risk is not taking any risk… In a world that is changing really quickly, the only strategy that is guaranteed to fail is not taking risks.” – Mark Zuckerberg
23. “Our lives improve only when we take chances – and the first and most difficult risk we can take is to be honest with ourselves.” – Walter Anderson
24. “Action is the foundational key to all success.” – Pablo Picasso
25. “Success is never final, failure is never fatal. It’s courage that counts.” – John Wooden
26. “Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.” – Steve Jobs
27. “All the art of living lies in a fine mingling of letting go and holding on.” – Havelock Ellis
28. “The size of your success is measured by the strength of your desire; the size of your dream; and how you handle disappointment along the way.” – Robert Kiyosaki
29. “O, wind, if winter comes, can spring be far behind?” – Percy Bysshe Shelley
30. “Patience is a virtue, and I’m learning patience. It’s a tough lesson.” – Elon Musk
31. “Be true to your work, your word, and your friend.” – John Boyle O’Reilly
32. “Believe in yourself! Have faith in your abilities! Without a humble but reasonable confidence in your own powers you cannot be successful or happy.” – Norman Vincent Peale
33. “Surprise is the greatest gift which life can grant us.” – Boris Pasternak
34. “Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.” – Albert Einstein
35. “It is the fight alone that pleases us, not the victory.” – Blaise Pascal
36. “Do exactly what you would do if you felt most secure.” – Meister Eckhart
37. “Life lived for tomorrow will always be just a day away from being realized.” – Leo Buscaglia
38. “Wisdom is oftentimes nearer when we stoop than when we soar.” – Wordsworth
39. “Take chances, make mistakes. That’s how you grow. Pain nourishes your courage. You have to fail in order to practice being brave.” – Mary Tyler Moore
40. “A single twig breaks, but the bundle of twigs is strong.” – Tecumseh
41. “If one does not know to which port one is sailing, no wind is favorable.” – Lucius Annaeus Seneca
42. “There is little that can withstand a man who can conquer himself.” – Louis XIV
43. “The limits of the possible can only be defined by going beyond them into the impossible.” – Arthur C. Clarke
44. “Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies.” – Mother Teresa
45. “The future rewards those who press on. I don’t have time to feel sorry for myself. I don’t have time to complain. I’m going to press on.” – Barack Obama
46. “By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest.” – Confucius
47. “No man was ever wise by chance.” – Lucius Annaeus Seneca
48. “Progress is man’s ability to complicate simplicity.” – Thor Heyerdahl
49. “It is not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselves.” – William Shakespeare

50. “It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.” – Confucius

51. “I want to put a ding in the universe.” – Steve Jobs

52. “Research is creating new knowledge.” – Neil Armstrong

53. “The reward for work well done is the opportunity to do more.” – Jonas Salk
54. “Man is a creative retrospection of nature upon itself.” – Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel
55. “There’s something about taking a plow and breaking new ground. It gives you energy.” – Ken Kesey

56. “Success seems to be largely a matter of hanging on after others have let go.” – William Feather

57. “The essential conditions of everything you do must be choice, love, passion.” – Nadia Boulanger

58. “More business is lost every year through neglect than through any other cause.” – Rose Kennedy

59. “Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world.” – Archimedes

60. “A person who won’t read has no advantage over one who can’t read.” – Mark Twain

61. “The best way out is always through.” – Robert Frost

62. “Start by doing what’s necessary; then do what’s possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible.” – Francis of Assisi

63. “Without labor nothing prospers.” – Sophocles

64. “Intellectuals solve problems, geniuses prevent them.” – Albert Einstein

65. “This is the precept by which I have lived: Prepare for the worst; expect the best; and take what comes.” – Hannah Arendt

66. “The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched – they must be felt with the heart.” – Helen Keller

67. “He who is brave is free.” – Lucius Annaeus Seneca

68. “When something is important enough, you do it even if the odds are not in your favor.” – Elon Musk

69. “I choose a block of marble and chop off whatever I don’t need.” – Auguste Rodin

70. “Hope is the only bee that makes honey without flowers.” – Robert Green Ingersoll

71. “He who knows that enough is enough will always have enough.” – Lao Tzu

72. “Plans to protect air and water, wilderness and wildlife are in fact plans to protect man.” – Stewart Udall

73. “In order to carry a positive action we must develop here a positive vision.” – Dalai Lama

74. “A hero is someone who understands the responsibility that comes with his freedom.” – Bob Dylan
75. “Inflation destroys savings, impedes planning, and discourages investment. That means less productivity and a lower standard of living.” – Kevin Brady
76. “If we give something positive to others, it will return to us. If we give negative, that negativity will be returned.” – Allu Arjun
77. “A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week.” ~ George S. Patton
78. “You must do the things you think you cannot do.”- Eleanor Roosevelt
79. “Success is dependent on effort.” – Sophocles
80. “Nobody who ever gave his best regretted it.” – George Halas
81. “Lots of people want to ride with you in the limo, but what you want is someone who will take the bus with you when the limo breaks down.” ~ Oprah Winfrey
82. “And when I breathed, my breath was lightning.” – Black Elk
83. “Moderation is the silken string running through the pearl chain of all virtues.” – Joseph Hall
84. “You are the sum total of everything you’ve ever seen, heard, eaten, smelled, been told, forgot – it’s all there. Everything influences each of us, and because of that I try to make sure that my experiences are positive.” – Maya Angelou
85. “If you want a guarantee, buy a toaster.” – Clint Eastwood
86. “We are an impossibility in an impossible universe.” – Ray Bradbury
87. “If you think in terms of a year, plant a seed; if in terms of ten years, plant trees; if in terms of 100 years, teach the people.” – Confucius
88. “I’d rather attempt to do something great and fail than to attempt to do nothing and succeed.” – Robert H. Schuller
89. “Do your little bit of good where you are; it’s those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world.” Desmond Tutu
90. “It takes considerable knowledge just to realize the extent of your own ignorance.” – Thomas Sowell
91. “Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment.” – Buddha”
92. Surprise is the greatest gift which life can grant us.” –  Boris Pasternak
93. “Trust in dreams, for in them is hidden the gate to eternity.” – Khalil Gibran 
94. “Always be yourself, express yourself, have faith in yourself, do not go out and look for a successful personality and duplicate it.” – Bruce Lee
95. “All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
96. “There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure.” –  Colin Powell
97. “There is more to life than increasing its speed.” – Mahatma Gandhi
98. “Your attitude is like a box of crayons that color your world. Constantly color your picture gray, and your picture will always be bleak. Try adding some bright colors to the picture by including humor, and your picture begins to lighten up.” – Allen Klein
99. “Definiteness of purpose is the starting point of all achievement.” – W. Clement Stone
100. “Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it.” – Henry David Thoreau
101. “In matters of truth and justice, there is no difference between large and small problems, for issues concerning the treatment of people are all the same.” – Albert Einstein
102. “Life is too short for long-term grudges.” – Elon Musk
103. “There cannot be a crisis next week. My schedule is already full.” – Henry Kissinger
104. “Success consists of getting up just one more time than you fall.” – Oliver Goldsmith
105. “The Earth is the cradle of humanity, but mankind cannot stay in the cradle forever.” – Konstantin Tsiolkovsky
106. “Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants. We know more about war that we know about peace, more about killing that we know about living.” – Omar N. Bradley
107. “Beauty surrounds us, but usually we need to be walking in a garden to know it.” – Rumi
108. “But man is not made for defeat. A man can be destroyed but not defeated.” – Ernest Hemingway
109. “Don’t watch the clock; do what it does. Keep going.” – Sam Levenson
110. “Let there be work, bread, water and salt for all.” – Nelson Mandela
111. “The social object of skilled investment should be to defeat the dark forces of time and ignorance which envelope our future.” – John Maynard Keynes
112. “A successful society is characterized by a rising living standard for its population, increasing investment in factories and basic infrastructure, and the generation of additional surplus, which is invested in generating new discoveries in science and technology.” – Robert Trout
113. “I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.” – Albert Einstein
114. “It is the fight alone that pleases us, not the victory.” – Blaise Pascal
115. “If you can’t describe what you are doing as a process, you don’t know what you’re doing.” – W. Edwards Deming
116. “Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
117. “Be sure you put your feet in the right place, then stand firm.” – Abraham Lincoln
118. “Without investment there will not be growth, and without growth there will not be employment.” – Muhtar Kent
119. “You have to do your own growing no matter how tall your grandfather was.” – Abraham Lincoln
120. “Victory has a thousand fathers, but defeat is an orphan.” – John F. Kennedy
121. “Delete the negative; accentuate the positive!” – Donna Karan
122. “It’s crazy how fast time flies and how things progress.” – Nathan Chen
123. “The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don’t do anything about it.” – Albert Einstein
124. “Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.” – George Bernard Shaw
125. “Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it.” – Confucius
126. “A man must be big enough to admit his mistakes, smart enough to profit from them, and strong enough to correct them.” – John C. Maxwell
127. “Walking with a friend in the dark is better than walking alone in the light.” – Helen Keller
128. “A man who dares to waste one hour of time has not discovered the value of life.” – Charles Darwin
129. “The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short; but in setting our aim too low, and achieving our mark.” – Michelangelo
130. “Progress is man’s ability to complicate simplicity.” – Thor Heyerdahl
131. “I like to encourage people to realize that any action is a good action if it’s proactive and there is positive intent behind it.” – Michael J. Fox
132. “Nothing is impossible, the word itself says ‘I’m possible’!” – Audrey Hepburn
133. “But investment in space stimulates society, it stimulates it economically, it stimulates it intellectually, and it gives us all passion.” – Bill Nye
134. “Bitcoin, in the short or even long term, may turn out be a good investment in the same way that anything that is rare can be considered valuable. Like baseball cards. Or a Picasso.” – Andrew Ross Sorkin
135. “Life is a tragedy when seen in close-up, but a comedy in long-shot.” – Charlie Chaplin
136. “No matter what you’re going through, there’s a light at the end of the tunnel and it may seem hard to get to it but you can do it and just keep working towards it and you’ll find the positive side of things.” – Demi Lovato
137. “Infrastructure investment in science is an investment in jobs, in health, in economic growth and environmental solutions.” – Oren Etzioni
138. “Educating our children and giving them the skills they need to compete in a global economy is a smart investment in our country’s future.” – Sheldon Whitehouse
139. “Know thy self, know thy enemy. A thousand battles, a thousand victories.” – Sun Tzu
140. “If one does not know to which port one is sailing, no wind is favorable.” – Lucius Annaeus Seneca
141. “Beware of missing chances; otherwise it may be altogether too late some day.” – Franz Liszt
142. “The sofa is a really important investment for anybody, and I don’t mean financially. You need to find a really great sofa that can transition with you, and you can build from there.” – Jeremiah Brent
143. “There is no investment you can make which will pay you so well as the effort to scatter sunshine and good cheer through your establishment.” – Orison Swett Marden
144. “Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less.” – Marie Curie
145. “There is little that can withstand a man who can conquer himself.” – Louis XIV
146. “In tennis, you strike a ball just after the rebound for the fastest return. It’s the same with investment.” – Masayoshi Son
147. “A camel makes an elephant feel like a jet plane.” – Jackie Kennedy
148. “The advance of technology is based on making it fit in so that you don’t really even notice it, so it’s part of everyday life.” – Bill Gates
149. “Success depends upon previous preparation, and without such preparation there is sure to be failure.” – Confucius, Chinese 
150. “Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success.” – Edward Everett Hale
151. “Never do anything against conscience even if the state demands it.”– Albert Einstein
152. “Education is not only a ladder of opportunity, but it is also an investment in our future.” – Ed Markey
153. “The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good.” – Samuel Johnson
154. “In my view, the biggest investment risk is not the volatility of prices, but whether you will suffer a permanent loss of capital. Not only is the mere drop in stock prices not risk, but it is an opportunity. Where else do you look for cheap stocks?” – Li Lu
155. “A successful society is characterized by a rising living standard for its population, increasing investment in factories and basic infrastructure, and the generation of additional surplus, which is invested in generating new discoveries in science and technology.” – Robert Trout
156. “The best preparation for tomorrow is doing your best today.” – H. Jackson Brown, Jr.
157. “Friendship marks a life even more deeply than love. Love risks degenerating into obsession, friendship is never anything but sharing.” – Elie Wiesel
158. “Investing in women’s lives is an investment in sustainable development, in human rights, in future generations – and consequently in our own long-term national interests.” – Liya Kebede
159. “Success isn’t measured by money or power or social rank. Success is measured by your discipline and inner peace.” – Mike Ditka
160. “No matter how many goals you have achieved, you must set your sights on a higher one.” – Jessica Savitch 
161. “Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.”– Arthur Ashe
162. “The secret of getting ahead is getting started.” – Mark Twain
163. “The amount of work and the amount of both physical and emotional investment it takes to get to the top.” – Drew Bledsoe