Stocks closed higher again yesterday with all of the major indexes in the green. The small-cap Russell 2000, once again, was the biggest gainer adding 1.24%.

The Nasdaq, however, is leading for the week with a 1.45% weekly gain going into today. And all of the major indexes are on pace to close higher for the week.

Early yesterday we heard from Taiwan Semiconductor, and they posted a positive EPS surprise of 4.22%, and a positive sales surprise of 0.10%. That translated to a quarterly EPS growth rate of more than 60%, and a sales growth of 44%. They were up 3.38% yesterday, making a new all-time high in the process. Thru yesterday's close they are up 24.4% YTD.

After the close we heard from Netflix. They posted a positive EPS surprise of 1.70%, but a negative sales surprise of -0.06%. Nonetheless, that equated to a quarterly EPS growth rate of 47.3%, and a sales growth of 15.9%. They were up 1.91% in the regular session before earnings. But were off roughly -1% following earnings in after-hours trade. Thru yesterday's close they are up 42.9% YTD.

Today we'll hear from another 35 companies in queue to report including American Express, Charles Schwab and 3M to name a few.

Next week, earnings season picks up with 609 companies on deck to report, including 2 Magnificent 7 stocks: Alphabet and Tesla.

In other news, yesterday's Weekly Jobless Claims fell -7,000 to 221,000 vs. the consensus for 233K.

Retail Sales rose 0.6% m/m. Ex-Vehicles it was up 0.5%. Ex-Vehicles & Gas it was up 0.6%.

Business Inventories were flat (0.0%) m/m. Manufacturing Inventories were up 0.1%. Retail Inventories were up 0.3%. And Wholesale Inventories were down -0.3%.

The Housing Market Index ticked up to 33, up from last month's 32, and in line with the consensus.

And the Philadelphia Fed Manufacturing Index improved to 15.9 vs. last month's -4.0 and views for -0.4.

Today we'll get the Housing Starts and Permits report, Consumer Sentiment, and the Baker Hughes Rig Count report.

After the close yesterday it was reported that the House of Representatives passed the Genius Act, which was passed by the Senate last month, and sets standards for stablecoins, which is a type of cryptocurrency that's pegged to another asset. That goes to the President's desk and will become law upon his signing.

Additionally, the House passed two other bills: one that goes over rules for crypto exchanges and brokers, how they will be regulated, and by which agency; the other bill bans central-bank digital currencies. They next head to the Senate.

Bitcoin, the largest and most popular cryptocurrency, has had a banner year so far this year, gaining 30.4% YTD, and is sitting near all-time highs.

It's been a good week. Between strong bank earnings, better-than-expected inflation reports, not to mention NVIDIA hitting new all-time highs on news they can resume selling some of their chips to China, which also lifted other semiconductor and AI stocks, the markets are off to a great start for the second half of the year.

And I'm expecting the second half to be even better than the first half.

So make sure you're taking full advantage of it.

Best,