Stocks faltered as US Treasuries caught a safe haven bid. AI concerns continue to linger, negatively affecting stocks (and corporate bonds) associated with data centre build. Oil prices reached a six month high. FOMC decision is this coming week, mid-term elections are the following week. Investors are likely to remain on edge, and volatility will remain elevated.

Stocks bounced around but closed the week higher, with both the S&P 500 and the NASDAQ closing at record highs on Friday. US Treasuries were ever-so-slightly better bid, with yields falling a few bps across the curve, Oil remains elevated. Gold and the US Dollar rose, while the Japanese Yen and Bitcoin fell. This week S&P 500 earnings will kick off with the six largest US banks reporting. JNJ, ASML and TSMC will also release results. The FOMC is week after next.

Stocks and precious metals bounce around as more earnings come and go, the Fed holds rates steady as expected, and a new Fed chairman is nominated by Mr Trump.

The weekly update covers NVDA's excellent earnings; the A.I. shine which is wearing off; the minutes from the last FOMC meeting (Oct); and the fall of Bitcoin.

Writing this weekly update is starting to get boring, because everything goes up every week, or so it seems. Having said that, one casualty this past week was gold, which finally seems to have come off the boil. The price of gold declined nearly 6% on Tuesday, and then stabilised but still ended down 1.8% on the week, the first weekly decline in the price of this safe haven precious metal since mid-August. All global equity indices were higher (yawn) on the week – most end

Some stocks that clearly "track" President-elect Trump's varied campaign promises have rallied hard, including TSLA, BTC, COIN and KRE.

Tech companies drove the 7% return of the S&P 500 in the 1Q23. Without the "magnificent seven", the index would have been flattish.

The five mega-tech FAMAG names start reporting their quarterly earnings ended Dec 30th, 2022, this week. I also included TSLA.

Love it or hate it, the fact is that Tesla's stock performance has left nearly all peers – tech and automotive – in the dust. Now what?