CWS Market Review – February 9, 2024

“Above all else, in other words, the stock market is people. It is people trying to read the future. And it is this intensely human quality that makes the stock market so dramatic an arena, in which men and women pit their conflicting judgements, their hopes and fears, strengths and weaknesses, greeds and ideals.” – Bernard Baruch

5,000.40!

That was the S&P 500’s intra-day high on Thursday, and it came within seconds of the closing bell. The index eventually closed the day at 4997.91, which is an all-time high.

What a change in sentiment! It wasn’t that long ago, October 2022 to be precise, when the S&P 500 was below 3,600. In less than 16 months, the market has added 40%. In retrospect, we can see just how damaging high interest rates and inflation were to the stock market.

We’re still in the thick of earnings season. We had three more Buy List earnings this week, and I’m happy to say that all three beat expectations. ICE also raised its dividend by 7%, and the shares jumped to a new 52-week high. Hershey sweetened its dividend by 15%. That’s the chocolatier’s second dividend hike this year.

In addition to those three, little Miller Industries released its preliminary earnings report, and the numbers were excellent. Shares of MLR jumped 5.5% on the news. I’ll go over all the earnings reports in this week’s issue.

By the way, do you remember two weeks ago, when FICO plunged $88 per share, or about 7%, after its earnings report? Well, it made all of it back and reached a fresh 52-week high on Thursday. FICO is a 13.5% winner for us this year (already!). It’s funny how so much of good investing boils down to riding out bad headlines.

There’s a lot to get to, so let’s look at our updated Earnings Calendar: