Amid aftershocks from the jobs report, US stocks fell on Monday after Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell struck a less dovish tone on 60 Minutes, tempering expectations that the central bank would cut interest rates more frequently. Powell's policy stance has bolstered expectations for corporate earnings this week, which will be critical to sustaining the recent market rally.

The dominance of the so-called "seven golden flowers" technology companies in U.S. stocks waned at the start of the week as investors and traders reassessed the likelihood and pace of a U.S. interest rate cut this year. This shift indicates a comprehensive reassessment of market dynamics and the impact of monetary policy on various sectors.

For the past two or three years, bears and market skeptics have repeatedly warned that the U.S. large-cap giants could end up missing revenue forecasts by a wide margin. However, compared to the "bubble Bear", Meta recently recorded the largest one-day gain in the history of the US stock market, which is actually a landmark event. While Meta's gains are largely driven by the promise of increased shareholder cash returns, there is resistance to taking a bearish stance on these potential upside surprises amid the AI hype, especially if investors subscribe to any of the many optimistic AI narratives, even though relative returns are highly dependent on a lofty starting point.

However, for the index as a whole, which seems indirectly dependent on expectations of a big rate cut from the Federal Reserve, the recent sharp improvement in US manufacturing data and strong Labour market data are factors for optimism. As a result, macroeconomic watchers are eagerly eyeing the only significant data on Monday, but renewed signs of an acceleration in services activity last month dashed expectations of a rate cut in the data at the start of the week. Unfortunately, in the midst of one of the most extraordinary economic cycles in modern trading history, investors will not find mild comfort in the services sector, that's for sure.

Overall, the ISM data underlined the view that, if anything, the US economy gained momentum last month. At the margin, this suggests that price pressures could pick up again.

From the employment data and the above data, this dealt another blow to the expectations of the Federal Reserve rate cut in March.

It's only February, and the U.S. stock market has already surged 4 percent in 2024 after rising 25 percent in 2023.

As ever, talk of a potential tech bubble is rampant. There always seems to be a belief that there is a bubble in US tech stocks. With so many bad factors at play, though, assessing whether these claims make sense can be a challenge. Sometimes the booing is valuable, but most of the time it's just futile. That's why investors are better off throwing it all away and holding index funds for the long term. Of course, I can't guarantee where the index will be in 5 months, but there is no doubt that it will be significantly higher in 5 years.

That said, history suggests that when it comes to investing, there is rarely a one-way ticket to heaven.