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It’s obviously been an eventful week, starting off with some mini-panic on Monday, though the market did find support three days in a row. But Wednesday evening’s tariff announcement has sent the market into a tailspin, with huge losses yesterday and, after China’s retaliation moves announced this morning, further big losses today. We have thoughts, so let’s run through them.

The extreme environment has continued this week, with last Wednesday’s tariff reveal leading to a massive selloff that took the market down into Monday morning, though there has been support since, thanks in large part to Wednesday’s tariff delay that caused the market to pop higher.

WHAT TO DO NOW: The news this past weekend that the U.S. and China have slashed tariffs sent the market soaring yesterday. Of course, there are still headwinds out there (Cabot Trend Lines not yet positive, relatively few new highs among growth stocks), and we wouldn’t be surprised to see a pullback now that the “good” news is out.

As I do periodically over long holiday weekends, I stepped away from the “typical” Monday morning update and spent time with the family. Here is a shorter version of usual weekly update, focused entirely on our current open positions.

As I do periodically over long holiday weekends, I stepped away from the “typical” Monday morning update and spent time with the family. Here is a shorter version of usual weekly update, focused entirely on our current open positions.

HEADS UP: I’m finishing up a soiree with the kiddos so this week’s M&S update will be on the briefer side. I’ll be back at my desk Monday for another Top Ten issue.


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After a tough slide Monday, the market has been very impressive this week, with three straight solid and broad-based gains. Heading into Friday, the S&P is up nearly 4% while the Nasdaq is up more than 5%.

We’re now three weeks into this general market consolidation, and from a top-down perspective, it’s been according to plan, with very little giveback (and even some upside testing from the big-cap indexes) even as the market has been hit with some uncertainties (on-again, off-again U.S.-China trade, U.S. debt downgrade, Russia-Ukraine tensions).

The evidence has continued to worsen for the market this week, with just about all the major indexes (and most growth measures) down another 3% to 4% as of this morning. As you’d expect, most individual stocks went along for the ride, too.

It was a mixed week in the market, with the Nasdaq and many big-cap, AI-type names stagnating, while the broad market did very well, as small- and mid-cap indexes up 2.5% to 3.5% on the week, with more stocks hitting new highs, and while cyclical and some defensive names did improve, some non-AI growth areas that mostly sat out the past nine to 12 months did as well.

We had been writing about some of the secondary yellow flags that had been popping up of late, mainly due to the incredible rise in many growth stocks in both price (well above moving averages) and time (the biggest winners got going back in September), as well as near-term sentiment (getting giddy, not just with growth stocks but everything post-election).

January has lived up to its reputation in 2025, with plenty of volatility, cross-currents and news-driven moves, highlighted by this week’s huge AI infrastructure selloff and partial recovery while the broad market improved.

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It’s hard not to be at least encouraged by the market’s resilience of the past couple of weeks—last Monday, one of the big leading sectors (AI infrastructure) was clobbered on the DeepSeek-related uncertainties, and then this Monday, the market took a hit on tariff fears (including some that actually went into effect). Certainly, if the market wanted to sell off a few percent, it could have, but instead things held together—and bounced back.

WHAT TO DO NOW: The market has rallied nicely in the past week, which has improved the evidence—though for both our indicators and leading stocks, it’s been good but not necessarily decisive just yet. Even so, we’ve been sitting on a big cash hoard for a few weeks and we’ll start to come off that today, buying half-sized (5% of the portfolio) positions in Marvell Tech (MRVL) and Reddit (RDDT) while also restoring our Buy rating on Shift4 (FOUR). Our cash position will now be around 48%—more details in tonight’s issue of Growth Investor.

It’s been another solid, encouraging week for the market, with the major indexes all sporting solid gains—the big-cap indexes were up 2% or while the broader indexes are in the black by a bit more than 1%.

WHAT TO DO NOW: The popular AI stocks were hit extremely hard today on fears that the CapEx spending boom could be cut short following the DeepSeek successes, which in turn dragged the major indexes lower. Outside of AI, the damage was reasonable, which is a plus, but with the major indexes still trending sideways and few stocks decisively moving higher, we’re remaining relatively cautious. In the Model Portfolio, we’re forced to quickly cut our loss in Marvell Tech (MRVL), which was caught up in the out-of-the-blue selling storm among AI stocks. Our cash position will now be around 53%.

The selloff in leading stocks that started last week has continued, and now it’s spilled over into the major indexes, as it usually does—most indexes were down 2% or more on the week, including the Nasdaq down 5% and many growth measures off 4%-plus.

The major indexes hit a low on March 13 and bounced for eight days through Tuesday, though that bounce has run into another wave of selling, with the major indexes retrenching the past three days. Overall, the major indexes are about flat on the week after this morning’s modest down opening.

It’s been another hectic but positive week in the market, with the major indexes pushing back to their prior highs or, in some cases, out to new high ground after this morning’s inflation report, albeit with another wobble in the middle of the week. Still, when looking at the evidence, the top-down measures remain positive.

It’s been another up week for the major indexes, and this time, it’s been a risk-on one as well when it comes to growth stocks. Coming into Friday, all of the major indexes were in the black, led by the big-cap indexes, which were up 1.5%, with not much movement early today.