The media mouths agape as they have to come up with headlines explaining why the market closed at an all-time high, against their never-ending narrative of doom and gloom.  Every day telling Americans Iran was winning the war, and all we’d get out of it was higher gasoline prices.

Sloppy Session

Although milestones were established, the session was sloppy. It's clear, however, that buyers are on the prowl, sifting through the ashes, and software (IGV) has become an ash heap.

From a technical perspective, IGV looks very attractive. You could say it broke above a key trendline, while taking out the 50 and 200-day moving averages to boot. But it's still a “dead cat bounce.”

Speaking of Barking Dogs?

Tuesday’s removal of the $25,000 limit for day trading continued to drive shares of Robinhood Markets (HOOD). Meanwhile, software darlings, such as DoorDash (DASH), ServiceNow (NOW), Intuit (INTU), and Datadog (DDOG) enjoyed a strong session. But all those moves were overshadowed by the most bizarre story of 2026. I also saw compelling action in quantum and rare earth stocks.

Two Cautious Tales

A couple of weeks ago, a former cool poster child company, Allbirds (BIRD), sold most of its assets for $39 million, reflecting an embarrassing decline for a company once valued at $4.0 billion. It’s a cautionary tale for investors willing to chase initial public offerings (IPOs), especially those from the cool clique. Yesterday, the company announced it was investing $50 million to become an artificial intelligence (AI) player, and the shares surged.

Bird-Brained

The move immediately brought to mind the 1990s, when adding “dot.com” to the company’s name gave the stock new life. The rebound was enormous, but the carnage was so bad it barely showed up as a blip on the long-term chart.

Still, we must now be on guard for companies adding “AI” to suck in unsuspecting investors. In my mind, this puts the market back to 1996, which means there is a ton of upside, but a whole lot more shenanigans.

Today’s Session

The thrust of this rebound has tongues wagging on Wall Street and in the financial media, as they desperately search for the negative counterfactual.

One report mentioned 1928, but either misread it or ignored it. It’s great to see the market up, and yes, there are still uneven elements to the move, but remember, it’s a market of stocks we care about.

Retail Investors Need to See More

Retail investor sentiment declined in the past week, which is interesting. I suspect it will come on strong in the weeks to follow.

A monster Philly fed report – second best since November 2021- underscores the manufacturing rebound is coming on strong.

Comments

Most of what is passed off as AI is not Artificial Intelligence but just good old fashioned lines of software code. One Marketer even leads off their TV commercial saying "AI can turn on your lights!". Oh, brother! My Newfoundland can turn on my lights. T in Tx Tim L on 4/16/2026 12:32:32 PM

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