The market eked out a gain on Friday, but the real story is how buyers continue to buy weakness.

The Heat Map is encouraging – we want to see buying beyond the “Magnificent Seven” stocks.

The Fear & Greed gauge has eased into ‘about right’ greed. Remember that greed in this case is about being opportunistic, not taking extra risks or being unreasonable.

Focus on Small-Caps

The small-caps have been wrecked – perhaps they will get back on track.

Reasons for Optimism

Last week, the Russell 2000 soared.

A move to disinflation from inflation has been a fantastic backdrop for the Russell 2000.

There are also trends in the stock market. Most are inconsequential. I bristle when I hear someone on television say, ‘The market is up two of the last three sessions.’ 

I’m like: So, What!

But the Monday Rally phenomenon in 2023 is very compelling. I can’t explain it, but I’m also not complaining.  

Today’s Session

It looks to be a relatively quiet start to this holiday shortened trading week.  The major indices are flat.  The greenback (US Dollar) continues to decline and is at an 11-week low. 

On Friday, Sam Altman, CEO of Open AI (ChatGPT), was fired by the board.  But don’t feel too bad for him, as Microsoft (MSFT) gobbled him up, and he will head their new AI research team. MSFT is up over 1% on the news.

Speaking of A1, Amazon (AMZN) has a new program, “AI Read,” which hopes to train at least 2 million people in artificial intelligence on basic to advanced skills by 2025.