Translating 'power into legitimacy' has come into focus again this past week. Mostly because of discussions 'beyond' liberating Venezuela or even Iran. But also as many worry about the Supreme Court forthcoming 'rulings' regarding implementation of tariffs.

Certainly The White House 'thought' they set-the-stage for U.S. Oil company enthusiasm about revisiting Venezuela, especially when certain donations to a campaign are seen as 'perhaps' indicating wanting this. Actually that's political to an extreme I suspect, as the reticence to reenter those Oil Fields shows the petroleum industry does NOT feel the political accommodation is adequate for them to do so at this time; and they are correct. But perhaps that can be fixed.

For markets, aside all that, it is still a 'tale of two cities' so to speak. And that's why we generally concur with views of the S&P as 'expensive'; although if the Supreme Court leaves things alone, you might find odds of this being not so risky a market as some contend. Either way all we want is for S&P neutrality; so our 'new-era' stocks do fluctuate of course, while generally gaining ground.

Market X-ray: upward and limited slip-sliding towards the weekend is not only normal, but reasonably defensive considering the 'big Oil' companies (heavily influential beyond merely Oil prices or their own equity shares) are very wise to be reticence to commit money to rebuilding Venezuelan production without legally-binding changes to the Caracas situation. This is very much pending.

Also pending is a 'long-awaited' decision by the Supreme Court regarding as to whether they will rule on the Constitutionality or other aspects of President Trump's tariffs. The influence of such a ruling can impact prices not simply in an up or down way; because different industry groups would suffer or benefit from having the tariffs (unless they just change the nomenclature) removed.

It would probably be greeted with joy by consumers (or retail businesses) but be abhorrent to tech or semiconductor / aviation / component etc. companies with evolving plans to 're-shore' industry to America. Not to mention ... autos. I think a definitive illegality to it would force a refund (to companies not nations as that's how tariffs were or are collected by Government); whereas ironically that might 'boost' short-term revenue, but hurt future growth prospects.

At the same time proponents will rejoice simply at the idea of lower prices (labor; but certainly some of that is ameliorated by shipping and Asian labor isn't so low overhead as it was years ago). Enough of this for now; let's see what is in store, as Friday SCOTUS made no ruling whatsoever in this realm.

Our role continues to focus on financial success in markets; certainly not any focus on agenda politics. However I do not think it makes sense for constantly talking about Greenland to the chagrin of allies. Additional policies have been received in mixed fashion; and there is lots of controversy involved plus things seem to make more sense when spoken by State Secy. Rubio or by Treasury Secy. Bessent, with all due respect (Donald's policies often at the core seem reasonable -for markets- as long as his hyperbole can somehow be limited).

We'll see; but either way (if the macro market doesn't impede or even implode soon, there is a reason for optimism for consolidation and further gains in our 'new-era' tickers, which tend to be 'drone-centric'; 'aviation security' focused; and a bit of Quantum added to the mix. We'll continue to watch these more as investors in aggressive stocks, than trying to swing-trade way too often.

Bottom line: next week is very interesting.. we have possible decisions on tariffs from SCOTUS and we have the Needham Growth Conference.

We continue with an extended rising-wedge pattern for S&P (and Nasdaq to a degree) and modest optimism because the first week of the 'New Year' was to the upside. (Tradition is 'as goes the first 5 days goes the year'.)

That does not preclude a setback during the month; actually for S&P Indexes it would almost be surprising if we didn't see some sort of hiccup or more just to sober things up a bit... then we might see further rallies into January's latter part, with some risk returning in February; but that may be too conventional as even then again, that presumes that SCOTUS doesn't rock the boat and the US doesn't do anything particularly belligerent abroad.. although helping the people of Venezuela and incidentally Iran, to gain freedom is constructive, if it's presented and performed in a proper non-imperialistic humanistic way.

Our role continues to focus on financial success in markets; certainly not agenda politics. And I do not think it makes sense for constantly talking about Greenland to the chagrin of allies. However, policies have been received in mixed fashion; and there is lots of controversy involved plus things seem to make more sense when spoken by Secy. Rubio or by Secy. Bessent, with all due respect (Donald's policies often at the core seem reasonable - for markets - as long as the hyperbole can somehow be limited).

We'll see; but either way (if the macro market doesn't impede), there is a reason for optimism for consolidation and further gains in our 'new-era' tickers, which tend to be 'drone-centric'; aviation security focused; and a bit of Quantum added to the mix.

Join us next week for more. Please understand the idea here is to help guide our view (valid or not) about the market and a handful  of mostly-tech stocks, and not just to provide a voluminous market report every night; but tend to include the basic chart group which illustrates the overall activity. I'm afraid I'm getting older and my stamina for longer reports becomes limited ... then I do them anyway haha.

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