Trump Inauguration Looming, Stocks Ready to Close Out Week of Big Gains; Bitcoin Moves Past $100,000 Again; Gold, Silver Lower

Stocks took a step back on Thursday, failing to extend the "inflation is defeated" rally from Wednesday on the back of sketchy CPI data which showed Y-O-Y CPI increasing from 2.7% in October, to 2.8% in November, to 2.9% in December. All Wall Street seemed to care about was core CPI, which fell slightly.

With futures soaring pre-market, the Street appears ready to resume "buy everything" mode. The morning's upside can be traced to animal spirits, an announcement by the IMF, which said it raised its growth forecast for the United States to 2.7% for 2025, and a few more earnings beats.

Stocks appear set for a banner week, with the Dow up 1214 points through Thursday's closing bell. NASDAQ is up 176, S&P 500 ahead by 110 on the week.

Bitcoin has rallied all week and is once again above $100,000, nearly hitting $103,000 early Friday. Of course, gold and silver are lower.

This market has a unique tendency to celebrate itself, no matter the economic data or real world conditions. However, Thursday saw the return of that nasty bear market chart pattern of being up early and down late. Sometimes - and on Wall Street - it's nearly all the time, the obvious signal gets lost in the noise, and this is a very noise market.

Happy Weekend! If the world survives the weekend, Donald J. Trump will be inaugurated as the 47th President of the United states on Monday. Fingers crossed.

At the Close, Thursday, Janaury 16, 2025:
Dow: 43,153.13, -68.42 (-0.16%)
NASDAQ: 19,338.29, -172.95 (-0.89%)
S&P 500: 5,937.34, -12.57 (-0.21%)
NYSE Composite: 19,548.63, +125.92 (+0.65%)