Innovation may be hard to define but, to borrow from former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart, you know it when you see it. The United States economy is full of innovation. It has to be. Manufacturing industries that dominated the economy decades ago - textiles, televisions, even automobiles, to a large degree - have moved overseas, where costs are lower. Yet the U.S. economy is at its largest point in history and still growing. If U.S. corporations weren't innovating, creating new products and services, and moving into new markets and applications, the domestic economy would be contracting, not expanding, and capital would not be flooding into the country. Particularly at this juncture of the market and economic cycles, when uncertainty is high due to high inflation and rising interest rates, we look to innovative companies to navigate the challenges. At Argus, a 90-year-old independent research firm that has innovated a time or two in its long history, we have focused on four types of innovative companies: Industry Disruptors; First to Market; New Product Specialists; and Product & Process Perfectors. Here are some examples of companies, featured in our Innovation Theme Model Portfolio.

Last week was volatile for stocks, with the indices hit on Tuesday and Wednesday but then rebounding on Thursday and Friday. The S&P 500 (SPX) rose 2.2% on the last two days of the week, with the Nasdaq ripping higher by 3.5%, and the Nasdaq 100 (QQQ) popping 3.3%. The SPX stopped right at the underside of its 50-day moving average, the QQQ is about a point below the 50-day, and the only major index to leapfrog the 50-day was the Nasdaq. The index lost its 50-day on April 15, so it spent a modest 14 days below the average.

Meta Platforms operates the world's largest family of social networking websites, including the flagship Facebook site, Instagram, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Reels and Threads. The sites enable users to communicate with friends and family by posting to the site; commenting on others' posts; sharing photographs, website links, and videos; and messaging and playing games. The company also partners with application developers to add functionality to the sites, and allows users to pay for virtual goods and services through its Payments function. Meta derives about 55% of its revenue from outside the U.S. and Canada. Facebook/Meta went public on May 18, 2012. Meta Platforms changed its ticker from FB to META on June 9, 2022.

U.S. stocks sold off on Thursday morning following economic data that led investors to believe that the first interest rate cut will likely be in September. However, stocks recovered some of their losses by market close, while bond yields rose. On the housing front, pending home sales grew 3.4% in March according to the National Association of Realtors, ahead of estimates for sales to remain flat sequentially. The Dow was down 1.0%, the S&P 500 fell 0.5% and the Nasdaq lost 0.6%. Crude oil is trading above $83 per barrel and gold is up $1 to $2343 per ounce.