Weekly Commentary: Anything But Normal Times

2025-08-09 04:35:12 ET

The Nasdaq 100 surged 3.7% this week to close at an all-time high. Powered by Apple 13.3% melt-up, the Bloomberg MAG7 Index surged 5.4% to a record high.

August 6 - New York Times (Luke Broadwater and Tripp Mickle): "President Trump and Tim Cook, Apple's chief executive, announced… Apple would devote $100 billion to additional investment in the United States, the company's latest move to buy more components from U.S. suppliers and avoid the president's threat of tariffs on iPhones. The announcement, in the gold-adorned Oval Office, came after Mr. Cook presented Mr. Trump with a 24-karat gold gift and lavished him with praise. Mr. Cook highlighted the creation of Apple's American Manufacturing Program, focused on bringing more of the company's supply chain and advanced manufacturing to the United States. The president 'asked us to think about what more we could commit to doing,' Mr. Cook said…, 'and Mr. President, we took that challenge very seriously.'"

Add Tim Cook's $100 billion investment commitment to February's $500 billion. At this pace, it could turn into real money. Last week's fledgling risk aversion was reversed as fast as you can yell "cover your shorts" and "unwind your hedges." High yield CDS dropped 13 bps, reversing just over half of last week's 22 bps spike. Investment-grade CDS reversed three of last week's four bps increase. The VIX's 5.2 drop (to 15.2) essentially reversed the previous week's jump....

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