In today's episode, Tyler wraps up a week that was nothing short of theatrical. He breaks down a strong close to another good week for our major indexes, highlighting the continued resilience we have seen from stocks, and explains why any market pullbacks remain solid buying opportunities.

Don’t look back because the market is closed. Good Friday afternoon, everyone. Tyler Herriage here with you for today’s VRA Investing podcast. Hope you all had a great end to your week. This week out there after yesterday’s the theatrical day is probably an understatement, really. Not just for the market, for headlines as well. The, the theatrics were big. So with that in mind, you know, today’s action really could have gone either way, but it was a good end, a strong end to the week for our major indexes, large names out there.

Really an impressive session with once again here for this market. And this certainly has been a pattern since the April lows that we’ve been able to brush off. Just about anything that gets thrown at this market. Doesn’t matter if it’s bad data, bad news, bad headlines, tariff deals, again, obviously not the case for the whole year. But since the April lows, which is exactly what Kip and I talked about at the time of what we were looking for, you know, once the market stopped reacting poorly to bad news, we knew that the turn had been made.

As long as we continued seeing headlines of, you know, a negative headline and a big sell off. All right, yes, it’s tough to be too bullish about the short term action in this market, but when you start to see a market that you have bad news or even just an uncertain kind of day like yesterday, right, and then the dip immediately gets bought in the next session, especially with conviction like we saw today, which we’ll cover here in a minute. But again, we’ve seen lower opens that continued to get bought, and this was not even a lower open too much today.

[00:02:17]:
But we’ve also seen semis continuing to lead the market. An impressive week from the semis. I’ll cover that here in a little bit as well. And bad news having minimal impact at most, as I’ve said a couple times here, that’s really exactly what you want to see, textbook kind of bull market action. So this morning we did actually get a little bit of good news though, for this market. Just jobs numbers came in. And after Wednesday’s big miss in the ADP number, you know, the whisper was not good about this jobs number. So we beat expectations.

Headlines were strong. And when you have a stronger than expected day, people are going to dive under the hood. And as many have pointed out already, I won’t get into it too much here on the podcast, but when you did look under the hood of this jobs number, it might not have been as strong as it appeared from the headlines, you know, on the surface of things. But hey, I’m not about to start trusting this data now. Right? We’ve talked about this here for a long time. Don’t trust government data. Right. I didn’t trust it in the Biden administration.

[00:03:35]:
We’re only not even half a year in to Trump’s second term. So, you know, we’ll certainly need more time to tell if this data can be reliable or not. So again, under the hood, April was revised, lower participation rate fell. So certainly some concerning aspects under there. But overall headline number strong. We continue to look for a strong economy here. Beside, despite all of the doomsayers out there, they’re looking for an economic collapse. That’s not what we’re looking for here.

We do continue to see this as the beginning of a golden age, like Trump has said in a massive bull market underway. We’ve called it the innovation revolution roaring2020s. And those still remain in case intact here, as do all five of our VRA big bribe megatrends at this point as well. All right, so let’s take a look at our market action on the day. We were led by the small caps, which had a very good week this week, I believe up over you’re leading our other major indexes this week. Small caps led the way, certainly good to see and another example of the health of the US Economy right now. That’s why we really want to see small caps performing well. After that it was tech.

[00:05:01]:
So tech leading, you know, the big three, exactly what we want to see. Tech leading and semis leading tech, which I mentioned earlier. NASDAQ up 1.2% on the day to day to 19 529. Now I will point out semis led over the week. They did not lead today up just over 7/10 of 1%. So technically no, the semis didn’t lead to close out the week. But when you dig under the hood to this one, you’ll see out of the 10 largest chip makers and companies that are US listed right now, nine out of the 10 finished higher on the day to day, some of them with very big gains as well. It was just Broadcom, you know, a disappointing reaction to to their earnings.

Although tough to feel bad for them and doesn’t look like a larger problem either. It was good. It was good. Earnings didn’t quite live up to expectations, but they just hit an all time high two sessions ago. Right. So they’re down just under 5% on the day, but it was the only one of the Semis that was lower. And unfortunately it does hold the third largest position in, in the semiconductor ETF smh, which is where I’m getting this from here again though, all of the larger other large holdings in this ETF finished the week strong and Semis finished the week up five, nearly just under five and a half percent. Incredible week from the semis here.

[00:06:45]:
NASDAQ still had a fantastic week as well, but the semis more than doubled it. Nasdaq was up 2.18% on the week. So Semis have been leading, looking great here. You know, if they did happen to take a little bit of pause while the tech continued, the rest of the tech sector started to take a little bit of leadership. You know, the generals, you know, really start to do their job as well. We see that as healthy action and a buying opportunity. Absolutely. Next up, the S&P 500.

Another exciting one here today. Getting back above 6000 for the first time since February, since the sell off began, just barely on the day, up just over 1% at 6,000, just about all on the dot. But what this means, not only is that an important psychological level, which absolutely does matter in trading and investing, sentiment is a similar thing. Sentiment drives the market. So these psychological levels do have an impact. You know, like most things, it’s an indicator, right? None of these are have a perfect success rate. You really got to dive into the analytics to start getting into some of those. But we are now just under two and a half percent away from all time highs.

[00:08:06]:
I mean this is what an incredible comeback this has been from the bear market of 2025, right? Happening even faster than the comeback after Covid that took until August, I believe to get back to all time highs. So again, it’s been an incredible move. Any pauses we will continue to use as buying opportunities. But being two and a half percent away from all time highs, you know, if you feel like you’re not, if you’re underexposed to, to this market right now you’re hearing that and saying, gosh, I can’t believe how much of this move I’ve missed. That’s okay. You know, we can’t change the past now. But the party does not even really start until you get into blue sky territory, until you hit all time highs again. That’s when the party really starts.

[00:09:03]:
If you go back and look at the charts, you know, especially during the time period from 1995 to 2000 that we’ve compared this period to so much when our major indexes had pullbacks, when they got back to all time highs. It was rocket ship from there. That’s when the party really begins. So you know, we’re watching it closely here for every buying opportunity possible until that point, of course, but still the party has yet to fully begin here. Next up, finally here for our major indexes, Dow Jones finishing up over 1% as well. So 1% across the board for our major indexes. Great way to go into the weekend at 42,762 for the Dow. Looking at our internals on the day, also a good session here as well.

Under the hood for this market. Advanced decline coming in over two to one positive on the NYSE. Even better, two and a half to one positive for the NASDAQ today. 52 week highs to lows on the light side for numbers here. But even then it was an impressive beat. Combined nearly five to one positive for the NYSE and nasdaq. Finally here, volume. Also a good session.

[00:10:24]:
Again, the conviction buys in this market. Volume has been good, over 3 to 1 positive on the NYSE. Unless this looks about right. 76% upside volume here today for the NYSE. Even better for the NASDAQ. 80% upside volume today for the NASDAQ. So solid day from the internals. Again, exactly what you want to see to close out the week.

And again this just quickly kind of recap, yields were higher today as well. You know, that’s been a topic of concern for the markets. You know, Trump coming out today telling Jay Powell he should cut by a full point. You know, not one of these 25 basis point cuts, a full point. And that’s not enough to even put a dent in this market at all. Didn’t even, you didn’t even really see major headlines about it. Saw a few. Mostly just to cover the story then to really dive into it.

[00:11:27]:
I don’t know, I didn’t watch. Don’t really during the day anyway watch a whole lot of the financial mainstream media. It’s just on the background for breaking news or maybe a great guest. But point being here, great into the week and exactly what we want to see, especially after a day like yesterday with theatrical performance from our own president. Right. And the CEO of one of the largest companies and certainly the most impactful company likely in the world right now, you know, wasn’t pretty and great to see this kind of reaction from the market. Right. Just nothing sticks to this market right now.

Brush it right off. Water off a duck’s back. Great to see. All right, so next up for our sectors here today, all 11s and P500 sectors higher on the day. We were led by energy today. Good day for energy stocks. Oil and nat Gas having big days today. Followed there by communication services and consumer discretionary.

[00:12:25]:
Let me run this chart quickly. Meta. Making a multi month high. That’s a big portion of communication services as well as Google. Those two stocks make up about 40% of that portfolio. And Google having a good day today as well, up 3.25%. And we are almost, you know, even closer maybe. Yeah, a closer to an all time high than The S&P 500 is for communication services which is essentially a proxy for tech.

Tech sector. Same boat here. I mean right within range. You know, another two sessions like this and that’s that. That we’re getting to all time highs there for a lot of these leading sectors that we want to see now. We really want to see the semis, right? That’s the one that all eyes have been on. It’s been a year now since we’ve seen or just about a year since we’ve seen an all time high from the semis. That all time high took place in July.

[00:13:26]:
You know, just. It’d be pretty sweet if we get back there in time. Still got a ways to go, you know, about 10% for the semis to get there. But again, hey, if you’re not positioned like you want to be yet, the party is just warming up here, right? Hasn’t even gotten started yet to finish off our sectors. The laggards if you want to call them that. Still positive on the day. Consumer staples, materials and real estate, you know, not bad to see real estate finish higher on a day where the ten year was up over two and a half percent. You know, when I say the number I almost came.

I had to stop myself from laughing. You know, people concerned about yields. It’s four and a half percent is the ten year. Today it was up two and a half. That’s a big number there. But four and a half on a ten year yield, you know, it’s higher than it should be. We’ve said that here for a long time. But it’s not hamstringing the economy at this point.

[00:14:24]:
We should be able to move faster though. That’s kind of the story of the US government right now though. Dude, hurry up and wait. All right, let’s wrap it up here today with the V commodity watch. I’ll let you go and have a great weekend out there. Excuse me. Gold down on the day. 1.3% to 3330.

We also saw similar action in the miners today. As Kip pointed out yesterday, GDXJ had an impressive session. You know, Highest levels since 2012. Silver though continuing to make another higher level since 2012 and possibly even late 2011. Above $36 an ounce here. Let’s see. I thought I saw a higher print than this today. The high print I have here is 3650.

[00:15:21]:
So right in that range though. But great to see silver. You know, Kip talked about this yesterday as well. Going to play some catch up, you know, is at a historically low valuation compared to gold at this point in their ratio. Next up, copper down just under 2% to close out the week at $4.83 a pound. So I just want to take you through these charts here as they come in, which I was sharing these with you. We’ll get that going here again soon though as well. And then finally for our Commodity watch, oil.

I mentioned this in the sectors, an impressive, an impressive week this week, you know, because it’s been a series now here since it fell off a cliff in April. Right. A lot of cross currents for gold from drill baby, drill to tariffs again. Also kind of a hurry up and wait. And then with the tariff deal, estimates for demand and the second half of 2025 are on the low side in my opinion, overweighting the potential impact of tariffs, which who knows, if we string together a few trade deals then those estimates for the for demand in the second half of the year are going to be way too low. That’s what it looks like the car the chart of crude is telling us right now a little soon on the confirmation here but on a short term basis, you know, since those April lows as well in the cliff that it fell off of, really we just had a breakout to the upside here again a little too soon for confirmation, but we made a higher high. We’ve seen a series of higher lows since then. That doesn’t mean we have to go back to $100 a barrel.

[00:17:08]:
We’re only at 64, 66 today. 6479 is the last print. I have another two and a half percent in gains or two and a quarter for crude on the day again doesn’t mean we have to get back to 100 a barrel. But I think the sell off from April in reaction to tariffs has. It was overdone. It was overdone. So to get a bounce back in a world who would certainly not surprise us at all. We do like energy companies here.

All right, let’s close out the day with bitcoin higher on the day by 2.7% at 104,000. Was above 105 earlier in the session today at 104402 now. But folks, that is all that we have time for here today. Please be sure to subscribe to receive our VRA podcast every day at the Market Close. You sign up@vra letter.com click the podcast link at the top and we’d love to have you with us. Thanks again for tuning in. Hope you have a great weekend out there. Stay safe. We’ll see you back here on Monday for the close.