Before diving in to strained astrophysics-financial asset analogies, let's step back to earth, more specifically to Italy first. Last week, the USA Women’s hockey team won Olympic gold with a thrilling OT win. Then the Men’s team followed the same script to complete the Hockey sweep. The 232 members of the entire Team USA contingent won a national record 12 gold medals and 33 overall and provided some amazing family memories for the MAC Desk. Awesome.

We’ve written a lot about the rolling wave of sell-offs that have swept across industry groups, triggered by concerns of AI-driven disruption. As we started this week, the latest winter storm blasted the northeast, but a report by Citrini Research sent another storm through the markets that continued to push that wave inland. The write-up, which was more a scenario-analysis or thought-experiment versus a dire prediction, laid out a near-term hypothetical of AI triggering massive disruption, spiking unemployment and economic displacement. The report helped bring a sea of red across the tape on Monday. While the start of the week was ugly, the overall move was modest. The S&P finished down 1%, an average bad day, so to speak. . After a night of sleep, equities bounced the next day and recouped most of Monday’s losses. Software stabilized, which continued through Thursday.

The other big item this week: Nvidia earnings. The pillar of the AI story posted stellar numbers. However, that was largely expected, and one of the reasons why the S&P has been rangebound. The bar is incredibly high for prices to inflect meaningfully higher. Despite all the movement and concerns, the S&P 500 is down less than 1% this week with Friday pulling the index underwater. Month-end and an MSCI rebalance pushed flows around towards the end of the day as stocks made a push higher into the Close. Equities were struggling earlier in the day before comments from President Trump on various geopolitical issues send them lower. The equal-weight was positive, outperforming by ~1% for the week. Small and mid-caps underperformed. Despite the drama, 7/11 sectors ended the week higher. The defensive Utilities, Healthcare and Consumer Staples led, joined by Energy again on the geopolitical concerns. Financials and Tech lagged, with Financials seeing sharp losses bookend gains in the middle of the week.

Next week we flip the calendar to March. But before that, Berkshire Hathaway will issue its Q4 earnings and 2025 Annual Report on Saturday. This will include the first shareholder letter from new CEO Greg Abel, the first time someone other than Mr. Buffet has penned the letter in 60 years. Earnings next week will be heavy with big retail and consumer-focused names. Labor market data will headline the macro releases with February non-farm payrolls released Friday. Enjoy your weekend!