While everyone was having fun with “dotard” on Friday, the word of the day and year for the stock market is “resolve.”  All the major indices surged into the close, and the S&P and NASDAQ finished in the plus column as the Dow lost just 9 points. Market breadth was even more convincing, as there were close to one thousand more winners than losers during the session:

What’s working?

Last Monday night, I pointed to the global economy as a reason to filter out the noise (both domestic and geopolitical) and rotation into small caps from utilities and others as another sign of market confidence.

Of course, a stronger global economy is even more reason for pushing for fair and free trade.  On that score, today, the International Trade Commission unanimously ruled that the avalanche of cheap imported solar panels violates rules.  This actually paves the way for President Trump to take action.

The remedy calls for tariffs, which would protect America jobs, and even provide assistance to the coal industry.

• FSLR
• SPWR

Rotation

On Monday, I said to watch for the Russell 2000 index to outperform as money comes out of the safety of utilities.  The Russell closed at a new all-time high, and was up for the week, while utilities (XLU) were down 2.6%, the weakest of all S&P sectors.

Investors scrambled for bargains, even if for short term trades and lots of left- for- dead names rebounded, including Finish Line (FINL), which had a 27% trading range to close 20% off its intraday low.  The stock is only for nimble traders, however.

The stock I think long term value investors are buying is Equifax, whose shares surged more than 10% last week even as bad news never stopped coming.   I’m reluctant to buy the stock on principle, and it’s also too early to know the economic damage, but I think the company survives.

Worried

The stock everyone is worried about is Apple (AAPL), which released its new iPhone 8 and updated watch to mixed reviews.  Moreover, there will be the typical bugs and delays that come with new product releases, especially, but not exclusively to Apple (remember Samsung exploding cell phones?).

 I have AAPL in my retirement account and plan to hold through the iPhone ten, which should be a huge hit with fat margins.  If you are not long yet, at some point soon, there will be a chance to build a position.

The market opens slightly lower this morning, which is fine, as I’d like to see early support-discovery as we await the next big wave of corporate and economic news.