Tuesday, August 4, 2026

QNTM Day Wrap — August 4, 2026

The QNTM model portfolio returned +1.05% today, trailing the SPY benchmark's +1.83% by roughly 78bps.

What drove the gap: Today's rally was heavily concentrated in a handful of mega-cap and event-driven names rather than broad-based. Information Technology was up 4%, boosted by Palantir, which surged 29% after beating earnings — its best day since February 2024. Coherent and Lumentum added 14% and 10% on reports the Trump administration is drafting a ban on Chinese data-center component imports. Amazon slipped ~2% after Jeff Bezos filed to sell roughly $4.1 billion of shares , capping gains in that name. QNTM's mean conviction score sat at a neutral 50.0 across 1,423 stocks, with only 3% flagged high-conviction — a signal the model's rules-based, 50-holding sleeve stayed diversified rather than piling into the single-name winners (Palantir, chip/photonics names) that supercharged the cap-weighted index today.

Market recap: Wall Street closed sharply higher to start August trading, primarily on a fall in crude oil prices tied to Middle East de-escalation, with strong economic data also boosting sentiment. WTI crude fell 5% on optimism a deal could avoid U.S. airstrikes on Iran, and the S&P 500 topped its June closing record. Separately, JOLTS data showed job openings slipped to 7.36 million in June, below the 7.6 million consensus.

Next: AMD and SpaceX earnings after the bell, plus continued watch on Iran negotiations, could set tone into Wednesday.

Research/education only — not investment advice.