Stocks closed mostly higher on Friday, led by the tech heavy Nasdaq. But all of the big three indexes closed higher for the week with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq both closing at new all-time highs in the process. The small-cap Russell 2000 was also up on Friday, and for the week, and making a new all-time high close.

Better-than-expected earnings last week from 5 of the Magnificent 7 showed the power of big-tech. And it once again showed that the AI trade is alive and well.

But it also underscored that increasing AI CapEx is continuing. And some companies were penalized for it, despite posting impressive growth.

Nonetheless, big-tech continued their historic advance last week, fueled by impressive sales, earnings, and in many cases upward guidance.

It'll be an even busier week of earnings this week with as many as 1,637 companies on tap to report, including Palantir today; Advanced Micro Devices and Arista Networks tomorrow; ARM Holdings, Uber and AppLovin on Wednesday; Howmet Aerospace, Motorola Solutions and Cloudflare on Thursday; and Enbridge and Ubiquiti on Friday.

Stocks also got a boost last week after inflation, per the Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) index, came in as expected.

Last week's FOMC Announcement did not pack any real monetary surprises either. The Fed left rates unchanged, as expected.

And while odds for a rate cut seem to be diminishing as the year goes by, in part because of higher energy prices due to the Iran conflict, the Fed's last SEP report (Summary of Economic Projections), that came out in March, still expects one 25 basis point rate cut this year, and one more next year.

The only real surprise was Fed Chair Jerome Powell saying he would stay on the Fed as a governor (which he is allowed to do), once his Chairmanship term ends on May 15. He said he would only stay on until the investigation has fully ended.

As for a longer-term peace deal with Iran, and an agreement on the reopening on the Strait of Hormuz, both have been elusive so far. But the fragile ceasefire continues, as do negotiations, albeit thru mediator Pakistan.

Most of the major indexes are either at, or near, records highs.

And with more earnings season to go (stocks typically go up during earnings seeason), that bodes well for more gains to come.

But after heady gains in the last few weeks, there could very well be some additional volatility.

But with a resilient economy, surging productivity, and impressive earnings on display, stocks are responding accordingly.

And if all goes well, we could see those record gains furthered even more this week.

See you tomorrow,