The Strength of the Market is: Strong

Stocks slid last week as investors reacted to two main pieces of news - 1.) On Monday, China's DeepSeek artificial intelligence startup and 2.) On Friday, President Trump's aggressive tariffs against Canada, Mexican and China. The first reaction for investors has been to sell stocks. Wall Street is hopeful that the stock selling is overdone, especially if corporate earnings are strong, this week, from companies like Amazon and Google. Last week, the Nasdaq Composite was down 1.7% and the S&P 500 was lower by 1%. The Dow Jones ended higher by 0.2%. Friday ended a rocky January. Nevertheless, stocks were positive for the month. For January, the S&P 500 was up 2.6%, the Nasdaq advanced 1.5% and the Dow Jones outperformed, jumping 4.7%.

Economic reports from last week came back mixed:

•New Home Sales - higher than expectation

•Pending Home Sales - lower than expectation

•Gross Domestic Product - lower than expectation

•Jobless Claims - lower than expectation

This week, investors will look for guidance from economic reports like Construction Spending, Vehicle Sales, Job Openings, Employment, Labor Productivity, Consumer Sentiment, Consumer Credit and Jobless Claims.