Markets Don’t Care Until They Absolutely Do
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If you needed any more proof that it’s the machines’ game now… On Thursday, equity futures momentarily plunged over 60 handles on a headline—NATO preparing for war with Russia. Five minutes later, we’re bouncing. No follow-through, no volume. Just a headline, a blip, and back to our regularly scheduled melt-up.
This is the market we’re in: addicted to AI, blind to geopolitics—until it’s not.
Look, I’m not here to handicap global conflict. I’m not going to sit here and trade Baltic naval movements. But when the market shrugs off increasingly shrill rhetoric out of Europe and Washington, it's not a sign of strength. It’s complacency. Don’t mistake that for a green light.
Still, you can’t fight what’s working. And if you try, you’re doomed…
The tech-led melt-up continues—NVIDIA (NVDA), Super Micro (SMCI), Broadcom (AVGO), the whole AI complex refuses to come in. Dip buyers show up every time. Meanwhile, the S&P Equal Weight and Russell 2000 are still dead money. The market is telling you exactly what it wants—why argue?
Let’s talk mechanics. We're at quarter-end. That means performance chasing, window dressing, and the usual passive flows. Funds that missed the run are scrambling to get long the winners so they don’t look stupid on their quarterly letters. This isn't investing—it's image management.
And here comes Tesla (TSLA). The stock’s been a disaster all year, but now it’s bouncing hard on nothing more than Elon tweeting about a robo-taxi launch on August 8. Will it happen? Who knows. But in this tape, you whisper “AI” or “autonomy” and the algos light up. Fundamentals be damned.
Here's the real tell: semiconductors and crypto-related equities ripping while rates creep higher. Normally, that’s not supposed to happen. But the market’s not trading interest rates right now. It’s trading narrative. AI is the golden goose, and until that narrative breaks, buyers stay in control.
That said, I’m not chasing here. Many of these names are stretched on every timeframe. If you missed the move, don't compound the error by panic buying into quarter-end. Let the calendar flip. July 1 will bring fresh flows, realigned portfolios, and maybe—just maybe—some actual price discovery.
In the meantime, stay tactical. Long strength, short weakness. Skip the overbought junk. And don’t waste time trying to fade momentum unless you’re absolutely surgical. These are professional flows now. If you're not trading like a pro, you're getting traded over.
Markets don’t care—until they absolutely do. And when they do, you’d better not be the last one holding the bag.
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