Feeling emotional as the middle child is lost her first tooth. While I grapple with the younger kids growing up, I must say the tooth fairy is getting quite good at her job. She managed to show up on the second night (sometimes it takes her a few days because if I had to guess she’s quite tired at the end of the day), her typed-out note was very well received (and avoided comparisons to my handwriting), and in the interest of fairness she left $20 (a terrible precedent that was set with Child 1 before she did the math on 3 kids x 20 teeth (!!) at $20 a pop = $1,200 for obsolete bones).
Are U.S. stocks still exceptional or is the party over? On this episode of In the Money with Amber Kanwar, veteran portfolio manager Gordon Reid of Goodreid Investment Counsel breaks down why he’s still bullish on U.S. equities, how he’s navigating AI hype, and why investors might be overlooking 493 other S&P stocks beyond the Magnificent 7.
Turnaround: US futures are turning things around this morning as earnings come in better than expected (more on that below). Initially we started the morning session weaker as tariffs once again weighed heavy on investors. US President Donald Trump announced yesterday plans for tariffs on the pharmaceutical sector. The second thought on yesterday’s inflation read also weighed. While inflation undershot expectations for a fifth month in a row, the details were less comforting. Core goods inflation accelerated by the most since February 2023. The odds of a rate cut in September came down. Having said that, we just got a read this morning of producer price inflation that was cooler than expected across the board. We could see those rate cut odds creep back up as a result.
Goldmanatti: Shares of Goldman Sachs are poised to open near a record after results beat expectations. It’s equity trading division posted not just their best quarter ever but the best quarter ever recorded in Wall Street history with a haul of $4.3 billion. Goldman Sachs was one of Gordon Reid’s top investment ideas in the financials believing there is more upside from here.
Second best: There are fewer high fives for Morgan Stanley’s results despite a personal best in stock trading (but less than Goldman Sachs). There were a few blemishes: investment banking revenue fell as deal activity paused due to Liberation day and there was an unexpected spike up in provisions for credit losses (+158% from last year). So far in 2025 Morgan Stanley has lagged the returns of Goldman Sachs but both stocks are near records.
Bank of America: It was a clean quarter for Bank of America which managed to beat profit expectations and increase it’s share buyback. A relief to investors is that it maintained it’s forecast for net interest income – what they make on the difference between paying for deposits and interest on loans. Recall, Wells Fargo lowered their forecast when it reported earlier this week. “Overall, we view this as a strong quarter for BofA supported by stronger than expected fee income growth,” wrote TD’s Steven Alexopolous.
Wet blanket: The blight on today’s market action is ASML after cutting it’s sales forecast on the back of trade disputes. The semiconductor designer said that demand from AI is robust and it is currently exempt from most tariffs (though it faces sales restrictions into China). However, the cut to sales growth bakes in uncertainty around future tariff policy. That uncertainty is leading businesses to delay their purchase decisions, according to ASML’s CFO.
