CWS Market Review – April 18, 2025
“Sometimes the hardest thing to do is to do nothing.” – David Tepper
The good news is that Wall Street has recovered from the worst of the tariff volatility. The bad news is that we’re not yet in the clear, and it may take several weeks before we are.
The tariff issue is far from resolved, and any headline misstep can easily set the markets reeling. The Volatility Index is still elevated, and the S&P 500 is well below the 200-day moving average.
We recently entered earnings season, and so far, things are looking good. On Wednesday, Abbott Labs became our first Buy List stock to report earnings, and the healthcare company gave us a nice earnings beat. The stock rallied as much as 6% that day. We have a 16% gain this year with Abbott. I’ll go into the details in a bit.
The tariffs are already having an impact. This week, we got the strongest retail-sales report in two years. Unfortunately, it’s due to shoppers scrambling for bargains before the tariffs hit the price tags.
The Commerce Department said that retail sales jumped 1.4% last month, and auto sales surged 5.3%. Despite the impressive results, people are clearly unnerved. Consumer sentiment plunged to its second-lowest level since the 1970s.
If that’s not all, there may be a fight brewing in Washington over interest rates. This week, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell gave a speech that was seen as hawkish. This did not sit well with President Trump, who said, “Powell’s termination cannot come fast enough.”
We have a full schedule of earnings coming next week. I’m looking forward to another round of solid results. I’ll go over all our earnings reports. But first, let’s look at our Earnings Calendar.