Good Friday morning. Breaking: Q4 GDP came in with growth of just 1.4% vs estimates of 2.8%. As seen below from his Truth Social post this morning, the President blames the Democrats shutdown and J Powell (and the Feds high rates) for the weak result. For the full year of 2025, GDP grew at 2.2% (vs 2.8% in 2024).

VRA Bottom Line; while the Q4 result is a clear disappointment for economic growth, we continue to look for strong growth in Q1 and the rest of 2026. We believe Trump is exactly right about interest rates being far too high, which continues to slam the 2nd America (in particular). The markets are taking it (mostly) in stride with just slight losses in the futures markets.

VRA Market Update

Even as equal weight equity indexes are just off their all-time highs and as small caps have gains of 7% in 2026, we continue to see weakness in tech and momentum stocks, even as the semis continue to lead higher. The rest of the market will soon move in the direction of the sem...