U.S. stocks rose on Monday, continuing Friday's rally after a softer-than-expected jobs report. This week, there are no major economic reports and earnings reports are slowing. Oil prices are up due to concerns that a new Israeli invasion of Rafah is looming as well as news that Saudi Aramco will raise its crude oil prices to Asia and Europe next month. The Dow is up 0.1%, and S&P 500 0.6% and the Nasdaq rose 0.8%. Crude oil was trading above $78 per barrel and gold rose $24 to $2333 per ounce.

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.

The Federal Reserve wrapped up its latest Open Market Committee meeting last week and, as expected, held the current federal funds rate steady at 5.25%-5.50%. The rate remains at its highest level since 2000 and is above the long-term average of 4.4%. This is the Fed's plan, of course: keep rates high to push inflation lower. In the meantime, inflation has indeed been on a downward trek. The latest CPI reading was 3.5%, down from 9.1% in July 2022, and the latest core PCE Price Index reading (the Fed's favorite metric) was 2.8%. Despite the progress, both measures are still well above the Fed's target of 2.0%, and the slope of the downward trajectory has flattened lately. Those are potential problems for a central bank that watched while inflation got out of hand in 2020-2021 and wants to rebuild its reputation as an effective inflation fighter. Here are our key takeaways from the Fed meeting and the follow-up press conference. 1) Investors liked what was missing from the meeting, namely a discussion of a potential additional rate hike. 2) The Fed's lament of "a lack of progress" on inflation in recent months seemingly has eliminated the prospects for rate cuts in June and July. 3) The central bank's decision to reduce its monthly balance sheet is a "dovish" decision that should still keep the securities lending markets operating smoothly.

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.

Monday Tee Up: A Breather

The Vickers Top Buyers & Sellers is a daily report that identifies the five companies the largest insider purchase transactions based on the dollar value of the transactions as well as the five companies the largest insider sales transactions based on the dollar value of the transactions.

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In this edition, Zalando poised as a winner; growth looms for Scotts Miracle Gro; how does Buffett defend Berkshire's cash hoard now; and Bio-Rad, Genmab A/S, and Topsports International.