Stocks closed sharply higher again yesterday, led by the mid-cap S&P 400 and small-cap Russell 2000 with 1.44% and 1.37% respectively. The big 3 indexes were no slouches either with the Dow up 0.99%, the S&P 500 up 0.62%, and the Nasdaq up 0.65%.

Yesterday's Motor Vehicle Sales report showed total vehicle sales for December at 16.0 million units (annually) vs. last month's upwardly revised 15.7M (from 15.6M), and views for the same. North American-Made Sales came in at 12.7M vs. last month's upwardly revised 12.3M (from 12.1M).

In other news, it was reported on Monday that NVIDIA has plans to get into the robotaxi business as early as 2027. They appear interested in partnering with someone, at first, in a limited way. But it underscores their ambition to use their technology in the autonomous vehicle segment.

Speaking of NVIDIA, they reported seeing "very high" Chinese demand for their H200 AI chips. It was only last month that the Trump Administration allowed NVIDIA to sell these chips to China, which were previously restricted. The caveat is that the U.S. government gets 25% of the revenue. But that's still a hefty portion left for the company.

And speaking of AI chips, AMD CEO Lisa Su said that "AI is for everyone" and that "AI is the most important technology of the last 50 years." She noted that "demand for AI is just incredible," and "it's going through the roof."

Her comments are just the latest to underscore that the AI boom is alive and well.

Separately, but also AI related, Elon Musk announced that he's raised $20 billion for his xAI. And it includes plenty of investment firms, as well as some big names in the AI space like NVIDIA and Cisco, to name a couple.

Switching gears, word has it that the Supreme Court has marked this Friday as an 'opinion day,' which is when they will begin releasing written decisions in argued cases. They have not said, one way or the other, whether they will have a decision on President Trump's tariffs. But Friday would be the soonest it could come. We shall see.

That could have a big impact on the market. Will a favorable ruling for the Administration be cheered, as it will allow the President to continue to pursue his economic agenda, without detour? Or could a negative ruling against the White House weigh on the market, as it will inject new uncertainty into the economy and the market? Or something else? Again, no guarantee we'll get a ruling on Friday, but it's the first day it could potentially come.

Today we'll get MBA Mortgage Applications, Factory Orders, the ISM Services Index, and the ADP Employment Report.

But today's jobs numbers, and tomorrow's (Weekly Jobless Claims and the Challenger Job-Cut report) are just appetizers. The main course is Friday's always important Employment Situation report.

With the Fed believing there's more downside risk to the labor market, given easing inflation numbers, all eyes will be on Friday's report.

And whatever it shows, it could have an impact on what the Fed does with interest rates at their next meeting on January 27-28.

But first things first, and that's today.

Three trading days into the new year, and stocks are off to a great start. Already, the Dow is up 2.91%, the S&P is up 1.45%, the Nasdaq is up 1.31%, the small-cap Russell 2000 is up 4.07%, and the mid-cap S&P 400 is up 4.18%.

Wow.

See you tomorrow,