I expect a relatively boring, week. With no fireworks from the Federal Reserve. Almost no economic data. No jobs surprises. And no earnings news from the Magnificent Sever stocks. Just old fashioned block and tackling to see if any other stocks can join the Momentum Parade.
The Magnificent Seven stocks accounted for virtually all of 2023’s 24% stock market gain. The Magnificent Seven stocks are Alphabet (GOOG), Amazon (AMZN), Apple (AAPL), Meta Platforms (META), Microsoft (MSFT), Nvidia (NVDA), and Tesla (TSLA). And according to Wall Street analysts these stocks are set to do it again when they report fourth quarter earnings beginning this week (on Wednesday, Jonuary 24, with Tesla and continuing into the following week.The Magnificent Seven are expected to deliver combined earnings growth of about 46%, according to data from Bloomberg. That’s down slightly from the third quarter’s 53% expansion, but it still dwarfs almost all of the main sectors in the S&P 500 Index. It’s not surprising, therefore, that the long Magnificent Seven (and other tech stocks) is the most common trade in the current market. Nor that the options market is pricing in “virtually no risk” for mega-cap stocks, Brian Donlin, head of equity derivatives strategy at Stifel Nicolaus, told Bloomberg. All of which makes the recent weakness in some of the Mgnificent Seven stocks a bit worrying. Apple and Tesla are most likely to deliver disappointing numbers.
