So here’s the thing about Monday mornings in the stock market – they’re like that friend who shows up to brunch looking surprisingly put-together after a wild weekend. Today’s no different.
The big news? Apple just casually dropped some numbers that made Wall Street do a double-take. Turns out the iPhone 17 is outselling its predecessor by 14% in the U.S. and China. Not exactly earth-shattering, but enough to get Loop Capital all excited and slap a “Buy” rating on AAPL with a $315 target. Because apparently, when Apple sneezes, analysts reach for their calculators.
But let’s zoom out for a second. The whole market’s feeling pretty good about itself right now. Futures are up across the board – S&P 500 climbing 0.48%, Nasdaq doing its tech thing at +0.64%. Even the Dow, that old reliable index that moves like your dad trying to use TikTok, managed a respectable 0.38% bump.
The real plot twist? China actually delivered some decent news for once. Their Q3 GDP came in at 1.1% growth versus the expected 0.8%. I know, I know – those numbers sound tiny, but in the world of massive economies, that’s like finding an extra $20 in your jacket pocket. Meanwhile, Japan’s Nikkei absolutely lost its mind, soaring 3.4% to a record high because they’re getting a new Prime Minister.
Of course, it’s not all sunshine and iPhone sales. Trump’s making noise about new tariffs on Colombia (because apparently we needed more trade drama), and there’s this whole thing about China’s rare earth exports that sounds way more sci-fi than it actually is. Plus, Amazon’s having one of those “oops, the internet broke” moments with an AWS outage, which is basically the digital equivalent of your power going out during the Super Bowl.
Here’s where it gets interesting though – we’re smack in the middle of earnings season, and nearly 20% of the S&P 500 is about to spill their financial secrets this week. It’s like corporate confession time, except instead of priests, we have analysts with spreadsheets.
The VIX – that’s Wall Street’s “fear gauge” for those keeping score at home – is sitting at 20.78. Anything above 20 basically means the market’s got some jitters, like drinking too much coffee before a job interview. But here’s the thing: if it drops back below 20, that’s usually when the bulls come out to play.
Bottom line? The market’s trying to convince itself that last week’s bounce wasn’t just a fluke. China’s playing nice (for now), Japan’s celebrating, and Apple’s doing what Apple does best – making money off phones that look suspiciously similar to last year’s model.
Will it last? Who knows. But for now, the bulls are running the show, and sometimes that’s enough to keep the party going.