Stocks closed mostly higher yesterday with only the Nasdaq missing the cut, albeit not by much. The S&P 500 inched higher, making another new all-time high close in the process.

The mid-cap S&P 400 and small-cap Russell 2000, however, led the gainers with 1.30% and 0.79% respectfully.

YTD, the Nasdaq is the leader with 8.19%, followed by the S&P 500 with 7.28%, and the Dow with 4.60%. The mid-caps are next with 2.28%, and then finally the small-caps with 0.83%.

Not much in the way of economic reports yesterday, other than the Richmond Fed Manufacturing Index, which slipped to -20 vs. last month's -8.

Today we'll get MBA Mortgage Applications, Existing Home Sales, and the Atlanta Fed Business Inflation Expectations report.

Earnings season continues with 174 companies on deck to report today. Thermo Fisher, NextEra Energy, and AT&T will get the morning started as they report before the opening bell. Mag 7 stocks Alphabet and Telsa report after the close. We'll hear from other widely held stocks like IBM and ServiceNow as well.

All in all, there's 469 companies in queue to report this week.

That number expands to 966 companies next week, along with 3 other Mag 7 stocks: Microsoft, Meta and Apple.

In other news, the White House announced a new trade deal with the Philippines yesterday. Other countries are racing to ink new deals before the August 1^st deadline. The Administration insists the reciprocal tariffs will go on this time if no deal is forthcoming. Although, that won't preclude countries from continuing to negotiate.

At the moment, there's trade deals with the U.K, Indonesia, and the Philippines. There's also a working trade agreement with China. Those talks are set to continue in near future. The deadline for China was August 12. But Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that he and his Chinese counterparts will likely work on an extension when they meet in Stockholm next Monday and Tuesday. Underscoring the optimism for a deal, Mr. Bessent added, "I think trade is in a very good place with China."

There's also hope that a deal can be struck with the European Union in time. The bloc is one of our largest trading partners, accounting for roughly 30% of U.S. imports, and approximately 20% of U.S. exports. A deal from a large trading partner like the E.U. should be cheered by the market.

In the meantime, some of the biggest indexes are trading at or near their all-time highs, or at least their YTD highs.

And it looks like there's a lot more upside to go.

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

See you tomorrow,