{"id":73858,"date":"2025-04-13T10:47:47","date_gmt":"2025-04-13T17:47:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/drduru.com\/onetwentytwo\/?p=73858"},"modified":"2025-04-14T19:19:47","modified_gmt":"2025-04-15T02:19:47","slug":"strong-week-after-tariff-rumors-and-relief-the-market-breadth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/drduru.com\/onetwentytwo\/2025\/04\/13\/strong-week-after-tariff-rumors-and-relief-the-market-breadth\/","title":{"rendered":"A Strong Week After Tariff Rumors and Relief \u2013 The Market Breadth"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Stock Market Commentary<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The tariff rumors proved true after all. The green shoots of Monday<\/a> that grew alongside the rumor of a pause presaged Wednesday’s massive relief from a real blink on tariffs. Those historic gains were large enough to generate a strong week broadly across the stock market. Still, as more blinking and backing down on tariffs and excitement and disappointment over negotiations all unfold, the market will likely prove to remain volatile. The all-clear is not here yet, and the stock market remains deeply oversold. Moreover, a rare technical indicator that I wrote about on Seeking Alpha<\/a> suggests THE final bottom still awaits the market. (At some point soon I will reprise these findings).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I absorbed the week’s lessons on Friday night, I read an ominous article from Fierce Electronics on the devastating impact tariffs will have throughout the industry (see “Tariff shock to clobber computer prices, freeze hiring and more<\/a>“). Mentally, I went through the exercise of how I would need to brace for imminent selling like lose the floor on my short Best Buy (BBY) put option. The very next day, I read a breaking news report on Yahoo Finance<\/a> that the electronics industry received a major reprieve with exemptions from reciprocal tariffs for smartphones, computers, laptop computers, hard drives, computer processors, memory chips, and flat-screen displays. This news could explain the interesting out-performance of Apple (AAPL) on Friday.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Unlike most big cap tech on the day, Apple Inc (AAPL) was able to surge right back to its high of the week. The 4.1% gain greatly outpaced the NASDAQ.<\/em><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

We may never know whether word of the exemptions leaked on Friday, but this episode reinforced the potential of technicals in the middle of news-driven chaos. Technicals can whisper secrets. That is, suspiciously strong or weak price action has more meaning than usual because of the high stakes in the news flow. I was actually trying to buy an AAPL calendar call spread on the day, but the premiums were so high and my lower bid never attracted a seller. With hindsight, those high premiums alone communicated a significant buy signal. Now, let’s see whether the good news holds long enough for a strong open on Monday for AAPL, BBY, and so many other beneficiaries of this exemption. This tariff chaos is amazingly capricious and even arbitrary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The tariffed economic policy is supposed to make America rich. These kinds of exemptions undermine this greatness through tariffs narrative. Thus, I cannot be truly sure these exemptions will hold. The tensions are now high between blinking and backing down from economic and market realities and stubbornly sticking to the ideological narratives. According to Bloomberg<\/a>, “Since a wave of tariffs were announced on April 2, lobbyists from Apple and other technology companies have been pushing the White House for exemptions.” Brace yourselves…<\/p>\n\n\n\n