Chart of the Week

Stocks Are Strong (Besides today)

Author

Michael Batnick
May 23, 2025

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The stock market soared two Mondays ago when the President announced tariff cuts with China. It wasn’t just a handful of mega-cap stocks that did the heavy lifting; there was strength across the board.

On that day, 58% of stocks hit a new 4-week high. Since 1990, every time that happened, the S&P 500 was higher a year later, up 19% on average.

Of course there are no ironclad rules in finance, and who knows, maybe this will end up being the time it doesn’t work. But it’s helpful to understand that the stock market is a melting pot of investor psychology, and this type of data is meaningful because the emotions that drive fear and greed will never change. The bottom line is that an overwhelming amount of demand for stocks is a good thing, not a bad thing.

This comes from the chart of the week on Exhibit A. Advisors can sign up now and get a 7-day free trial.

We launched the platform two months ago and are pleased and motivated by the results so far. But we’re not satisfied. Never will be. That’s not in our DNA. We’re working on exciting improvements to the platform that we’ll roll out in the next couple of weeks.

Josh and I welcomed back Rich Bernstein to TCAF yesterday. We opened the show complaining about the Knicks game, and then got down to business. Rich is a legend on Wall Street and I know you’re going to love this conversation. Hope you all have an awesome Memorial Day weekend.