The strong performers were mega caps, financials, energy, and capital goods (industrials).
The weak performers were healthcare, consumer staples, residential construction (including HD and LOW), real estate, and utilities.
In other words, stocks sensitive to the economy rose, while recession-resistant stocks fell (healthcare, consumer staples, utilities). Stocks that are adversely affected by rising interest rates also declined (residential construction, real estate, utilities).
Trump stocks
Even more specifically, there are Trump stocks. Of course, the top Trump stock is Tesla. It rose by 15% today. But Elon is getting busier, and I'm a little worried if Tesla is alright.
Conversely, interesting among the Trump unfavorable stocks today was META. META has been declining by over 1% all day and finally broke even at the close. AAPL also declined against other mega-caps. META and AAPL may be identified as enemies of Trump, but I personally don't think their actual impact is that significant.
China-related stocks fell due to tariff concerns. TSM was down 1.3%, KWEB was down 2%. EV-related stocks were also weak. RIVN declined by 8.3%, LCID by 5.3%.
Speaking of strength, major banks and investment banks GS, MS, JPM, WFS all rose by double digits today. This is because with Trump, activities like M&A become easier, leading to increased revenue. In addition, with rising long-term interest rates, the yield curve becomes normal and profit margins increase. The economy is also strong, so there are no worries about loan defaults and lending is expected to grow.
Local banks also surged today. Regional banks are likely anticipating a normal yield curve and a strong economy.
Now what to do? My own judgment and bias
The question is whether this trend will continue until the end of the year, or if it's just for today, or maybe just for a few days. Is it worth following this price movement? That is the million-dollar question.
The elections are said to be good for stocks when the Senate and the House of Representatives are twisted, so it's not too good for the Akagumi Sogitori. However, I have a gut feeling that it will continue to rise until the end of the year.
Today's rise felt more like institutions buying rather than selling. Portfolio managers who need to show performance by the end of the year seem to be frantically buying.
Institutions are not done buying in one day.
Furthermore, there were quite a few people saying things like 'Sell the news' or 'fade this rise' and investors who were aiming for a drop in September and October are likely to be conserving cash since there was no significant drop.
It might be okay to straightforwardly ride the rising trend now.
The biggest concern is how high the 10-year bond yield will rise. It is currently at 4.4%, and if it gets close to 5%, it is likely to have an impact on the economy so caution is necessary.
My recent trades
The stocks I am considering holding long-term are TSLA, PLTR, META, NVDA. I have already invested heavily in NVDA and META.
I bought TSLA on the day the robot taxi went down, and it went up by as much as 31% in less than a month.
I missed the incredible surge of PLTR before the 2Q earnings, so this time I went ahead and bought it before the earnings on Monday.
After much hesitation, I bought PLTR about 15 minutes before the market closed, and it surged by 34% just two days after the earnings.
I think both TSLA and PLTR have increased too much in a short period, and they seem to have become somewhat meme stocks, mainly popular among retail investors, so I do not recommend buying them at this point.
There will probably be another buying opportunity, and if you are trading, it might be a good idea to sell for now.
However, I intend to hold both for 10 years, so I am not too worried, and if they drop, I plan to buy more.
Other stocks I have bought in the past month include NFLX and UBER. I also bought some PYPL today. These are the stocks I thought would be good to discuss in the study sessions.
I bought NFLX before the earnings, so it is now up by 13%. UBER, on the other hand, has dropped by 13% from where I bought it. I plan to hold them for the long term, so I am not too concerned.
Well, how will the year end? I vote for more growth from here. But if it goes down, I would also welcome it because I want to buy more of these stocks.
It's fun to go up, it's fun to go down. That's the enjoyment of stocks!