Penny Stocks Catch a Tailwind As Investors Board the S.S. Degen… Nvidia Buys D.C. Street Cred

Jerome Powell flicked a single breadcrumb of stimulus and the entire penny stock market dove on it like pigeons in Times Square.

After crying themselves to sleep last night over not getting a 0.5% cut, traders woke up this morning and decided, “Fine, Jerome I’ll be thankful. A quarter point is still better than nothing.” And just like that, the bulls are back… while bears have been tranquilized and shipped off to the zoo (for now). 

The S&P 500 hit a fresh all-time high (+0.5%). The Nasdaq exploded 1.1%... and even “Grandpa Dow” waddled higher (+0.4%). But the real winner was the Russell 2000, which popped over 2% and hit a record intraday high… because small-cap companies are basically 2-year-olds, and lower rates mean Papa Powell just agreed to keep buying them juice boxes and fruit snacks.

For anyone keeping score at home, Wednesday’s quarter-point cut was supposed to be “risk management” (Powell’s words). Traders didn’t hear that, they heard, “Jay’s got the hose out and he’s watering the money tree again.”

Even “Big Short” legend Steve Eisman chimed in, saying the Fed is nothing but background noise and the real story is still AI hardware. Which is a polite way of saying, “I don’t care what Powell does, Daddy Jensen for President.”

Speaking of Nvidia’s leather jacketed leader… after getting the boot from China, Jensen Huang wrote Intel a $5 billion check to build chips together. On paper, it’s a partnership. In reality, it feels like the nerdiest bribe in history… less “let’s innovate together” and more “please let me sit at the grown-up table in D.C.” Regardless of his intentions… Wall Street didn’t give a f*ck, Intel jumped 26% and Nvidia saw a 3% gain.

Meanwhile, Wynn Resorts climbed 2% after analysts declared it’s about time the world’s gamblers crawl back to the tables and blow what’s left of their life savings.

Over in the always-trustworthy world of insurance (the only industry where you pay them for years and they still look shocked when you file a claim) Allstate spiked 4.8% after reporting catastrophe losses of just $397 million for July and August. That’s a far cry from the $1.38 billion analysts had penciled in for Q3. Translation: Mother Nature finally clocked out, and Allstate’s accountants got to kick up their feet for the first time since hurricane season started.

Zooming out, barring a surprise tomorrow… the S&P is on pace for its sixth winning week in the last seven. The Russell 2000 is pacing for a 2.5% weekly gain. And individual investor bullishness just hit its highest since July, according to AAII. Prepare for an onslaught of laser-eyed Twitter profiles so aggressive you might actually catch a seizure scrolling your feed.

But don’t get too comfy. Tepper (BofA President and dogsh*t NFL owner) warned that Powell might accidentally cook the whole economy if he keeps cutting. Which is ironic, because that’s exactly what Wall Street is praying for: a nice, hot, overcooked bull run. Just goes to show that you can’t keep everyone happy… or maybe Tepper’s just sitting on a mountain of Palantir puts. 

Lastly, Congrats to everyone who snagged that filthy 36% rip on $CDLX into the close. The day started out slower than a DMV line, but patience cashed out in style. Be sure to swing back by the Stocks.News app tomorrow morning to see what our free Stock Prophet Daily Watchlist is serving up next.

If you read all of this, congrats for having a 10 second attention span (better than me). As always, here’s our heatmap for today.

At the time of publishing this article, Stocks.News holds positions in Intel as mentioned in the article.