Today’s Stock Market Update

After the year-end Santa Claus Rally failed to materialize, you had to know stock prices would come roaring back. This morning,  the Dow Jones, NASDAQ, S&P 500, and Russell 2000 are all up strongly.

When Tom Lee misses the forecast, you know it’s a tough stock market to understand. But anytime there are bear market forces, it’s believed that nefarious market manipulators are at work. It could be many big investors found the year end rally too frightening and would maybe reignite inflation, or they just want to rain on President Trump’s party as he retakes his office on January 20th.

The NASDAQ in particular is up 1.77% today, as NVDIA investors await Jensen Huang’s keynote address at the Consumer Electronic Conference in Las Vegas today. It seems NVDA is regaining its mojo and looking more like the rosy projections of its price are more likely now.

According to a report by Investors.com, Nvidia (NVDA) has a big appetite for leased data centers showing the company is  building its own “AI cloud services platform,” a strategy that add value to its AI chip value proposition, and would eat into Amazon.com (AMZN), Microsoft (MSFT) and Alphabet‘s (GOOGL) cloud domination ambitions.

Major Stock market indices, rising today.
Major Stock market indices, rising today. Screenshot courtesy of Google Finance.

The 2025 Year Start Rally!

Is this the year-start rally?   Please bookmark this page and return later to see how the predictions and discussion have panned out.

The NASDAQ is the hot ticket in 2025, thus far. Here are your top performers, courtesy of Barchart.com. (please note, this is not a recommendation to buy any of them).

Top Performing NASDAQ stocks.
Top Performing NASDAQ stocks. Screenshot courtesy of Barchart.com

The disappearance of the Xmas year-end rally is very suspicious, but rumor has it that President Trump is relaxing his tariff threats, perhaps to only critical imports.  That might come on the heels of other reports that China’s economy is really suffering and could potentially collapse. Turns out that China has been dumping product on the world, and most countries are blocking their exports to protect their own economies.

It all suggests we’re at a delicate time in the transition from corporate-based globalism to protective nationalism, particularly the USA. And while the USA will do spectacularly well, a sudden withdrawal of global trade could ruin supply chains and raise inflation.  It looks like President Trump understands this and is moderating to avoid these dangers. He’s made his point about supporting US manufacturing and easing trade deficits.  I still think Mexico is on his mind, as China pumps imports via Mexico. That deficit appears to be headed for $360 Billion. There’s no way this can continue.

It’s All About Inflation Right?

Apparently not. It’s just more politics and as I’ve said for the last 10 years, politics determines markets. Don’t expect big media to end its distorted spinning of economic and market events. The Democrats aren’t done yet.  But after January 20th, they’re in full emergency mode as Americans welcome in the Republicans. With the media forced to swing over to conservative pro-US nationalism, resistance to US economic growth will diminish. This will fuel and “all in mentality” and push the stock market to record highs in 2025.  Even Nvidia, the ring leader will likely enjoy phenomenal gains.

Foreign investors too, are reconciling to the fact that the US is the place to invest and we’re in the early innings of the AI powered economy, which the US enjoys a substantial lead in.

And with inflation subdued, America’s industry being given the green light, imports controlled, taxes headed downward, and the end of socialism in America, the outlook for the economy and stock market have never been better.

Inflation trend in US.
Inflation trend in US. Screenshot courtesy of Trading Economics.

Talk of interest rate changes are subdued or missing, however, AI chipmaker stocks are booming suggesting investors are in a 2025 state of mind and optimism is being released into the economic bloodstream.

While Elon Musk and the new DOGE might cut hundreds of billions in wasteful spending, inflation is looking beaten. Consumers and borrowers are being hit hard by the higher lending rates, but a number of economists including the FED believe high rates are a wonderful idea.

Market Forecasts for 2025

Others including Ed Yardeni quoted in a CNBC interview says the S&P could hit 7,000 by end of 2025.

Bank analyst forecasts for S&P 500 for 2025.
Bank analyst forecasts for S&P 500 for 2025. Screenshot courtesy of Yahoo Finance.

JP Morgan’s Lakos-Bujas, their global equity strategy team wrote that continued “US exceptionalism,” continued earnings growth, and interest rate cuts from the Federal Reserve will be a tailwind for stocks in the year ahead. He argued the US is likely to remain the “global growth engine with the business cycle in expansion, healthy labor market, broadening of AI-related capital spending, and prospect of robust capital market and deal activity.”

Investors Spirit: The Trump Trade?

Investors will be listening more keenly now to President Trump and his plan to bring the economy back to health and support the stock market.

If the “Trump trade” is a real thing, and expert forecasters including Tom Lee of Fundstrat believe it is, then the Dow and Russell 2000 will go much further. Small caps and small businesses in general have been plagued with high interest rates, inflation and high taxes.

The talk about small business isn’t prominent, so the Trump regime will likely be called out at some point about the “rich get richer” problem that is actually becoming a massive economic problem. Poor workers can’t really stimulate an economy, so the correct solution for a roaring US economy is higher wages and more employment, which in turn raise inflation.

The key to the outlook is supply and this is where deregulation comes in. The Democrats cut off supply to American companies rasing costs and reducing their sales. As supply grows, US companies will be more competitive. The empowerment and growing sales of small businesses will power up the US economy greatly. That hasn’t been factored into stock market forecasts, because these reports only feature large, publicly owned companies.

If it is all about inflation and a likely return to Pro-USA FED economic policies, then US stocks are looking really promising. Today’s reports of lower inflation and yesterday’s great US GDP report gave the markets a good lift.

Today’s Price Growth Leaders

Today’s chart from Barchart shows Fubo TV leading the way with its rumored takeover by Disney. Disney’s bringing in a new CEO, aledgedly less Woke, to bring that company back from irrelevance. This might be one you’ll want to pass on. And these stocks might not be reliable bets for 2025/2026, so please do your depth research before buying stocks.

Top price growth stocks today.
Top price growth stocks today. Screenshot courtesy of Barchart.com

Inflation Easing Steadily?

Truflation’s Inflation index shows a progressive upward inflationary trend but far from the levels of the pandemic. That will buoy the 5 year and long term forecasts.  See more on the weekly, three month and six months projections.  If it’s all about inflation, then investors should be moving their money out of money markets and bank accounts now to get in on what could be a once in a lifetime burst in value.

Truflation index chart
Truflation latest reading. Screenshot courtesy of Truflation.com

Best Performing Sectors Today

The best-performing sectors today are consumer staples, health care, and  real estate.

S&P Sectors today.
S&P Sectors today. Screen capture courtesy of sectorspdrs.com.




TESLA Real Time



Google Stock Real Time


Amazon Stock Real Time


 

There’s a number of investing sites and data sources which help you get quotes on today’s prices and more on the current status of the S&P 500, Dow Jones, and NASDAQ. See more on Facebook stock, Google stock and Tesla stock.

Top Stocks Overall Today

Find more insight into what’s going on in the stock market this week, be sure to check out the stock market predictions post and the best stocks to buy now posts. There you’ll find the key issues driving the market right now and what will influence it this week, 3 months from now and next year.  Yahoo Finance has a broad array of stock market information including real time tickers and economic news.

More on Stock Market Forecasts:

What is Trump Trade? | Stock Market This Week | Stock Price Quote | Best S&P Sectors | Stock Market Forecast | Market Rally | Stock Trading Platforms | Stock Trading | Low Mortgage Rates Today | Best Dow Jones Stocks | Best Stocks to Buy | Stock Market Next Week Quarter 6 Month | Stock Market Predictions | Stock Market News | S&P 500 Forecast | Dow Jones Forecast | Will Stock Market Crash?

 

Similar Posts