April Closes Higher, S&P 500 Up 9% In 2023

“To be independent of public opinion is the first formal condition of achieving anything great.”
~ Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel 

Good evening:

Trading is over for April, with the SPX up about 1.46% for the month and the Nasdaq up 0.04%, in line with historical norms. Although markets did not gain as strongly as anticipated this month, Head of Research Tom Lee continues to see strong gains ahead for the rest of the year. During a live webinar this week about spotting the end of bear markets, Lee used our Chart of the Week to summarize his arguments as to why we are already six months into a bull market:

Approximately 35% of the S&P, including some of the most-watched Tech names and Granny Shots, reported earnings this week. ExxonMobil ($XOM) and Chevron ($CVX) also released quarterly results.

Though not a large cap giant, First Republic’s quarterly results were just as closely watched. The troubled bank disclosed a larger Q1 drop in deposits than expected (about $72 billion, or 41%). Although First Republic reported that outflows had slowed, $FRC went into a freefall, leading other regional bank stocks down and sparking an initial drop of nearly 5% on the S&P regional banking ETF ($KRE). KRE retraced most of that to end the week down 0.40%.)&nbs...