Monday's closing bell witnessed a more restrained stock market following last Friday's extensive rally. Early trading was somewhat ambivalent, with the performance of mega-cap stocks creating a buffer for the overall market.

A BuRPI candlestick this week for the SP500 which saw price break and close convincingly above the Jan 23 pivot (it has been a long wait).

A short week this may have been, but an uneventful one it wasn't.

In recent macroeconomic developments, Nonfarm Payroll (NFP) data released on Friday showed a stronger-than-expected increase in jobs, likely to influence Federal Reserve's decisions on interest rate hikes. In technology, Apple's upcoming Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) will draw attention with the potential for new hardware releases, specifically in mixed reality headsets, which might be significant in the artificial intelligence (AI) industry.

Here is a summary of the Q1 Earnings call.

The market applied notable strength today, although its initial performance was more varied.

However, the session concluded with a 0.6% decline for the S&P 500 for the day. Mega-cap stocks also witnessed a downturn. VIX was up to near 18.

Reflecting on our trading since November 2021 when we started to axe, over the last week we have been at our busiest since we stopped swinging the axe over a year ago.

We've been especially proactive yesterday taking profit from different areas of our book.

The stock market started this abbreviated holiday week with some initial excitement over the weekend news of a debt ceiling but faded quickly into the session.

We still think NVDA stock makes for an attractive investment in our portfolio by seeking to gain from the growth trajectory of AI and data centres, but the recent run-up suggests now is the time for us to take some profit.

MRVL and MU both reside in the tech sector and semi-conductor industry. So which is the better trade?

Price just about managed to close higher than last week on the SP500. Price closed with a long tail on the weekly candle which if we drop down to the daily chart we can see how the week played out more clearly.

The upcoming release of Non-farm payrolls (NFP) data this week may be influenced by the shortened trading week due to holidays in the UK and US, impacting the foreign exchange (FX) market and US stocks.

The consumer on whose shoulder sits 70% of the American economy, continues to spend with spending on services bumped a tad higher, adding 1.1 percentage points to the net, but durable goods - which encompasses everything from waffle irons to speed boats - contributed an impressive 1.3 ppts to the upside.

A bullish day for S&P 500 and Nasdaq but I think the significant uptrend of NVDA has positively impacted these indices, simultaneously triggering increased investment in other semiconductor stocks that have also started to do well.

NVIDIA Corp. (NASDAQ:NVDA) reported its Q1 2024 earnings in a conference call on May 24, 2023.

We exited our ES short Swing position with a minor profit but will watch for a new opportunity.

Other than XLE, all sectors were in the red. VIX moved up 8% for the day.

In our weekly webinar, we analyse the stock market and how we will approach it for the coming weeks. Dynamic Trder members can access the full version of these webinars in the trading community and members area.

The week was besieged with mixed economic data, weak corporate results and ongoing debt ceiling negotiations in Washington.