The stock market dropped last week, as surging bond yields signaled tighter lending conditions may lie ahead. Tech stocks were the hardest hit and the Nasdaq recorded its worst week since October-though blue chips certainly weren't spared. During Friday's session, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 470 points, or 1.50%. The S&P 500 was down 0.48%, and the Nasdaq Composite increased 0.56%. For the week, the DJIA dropped 562 points, or 1.78%, the S&P 500 was down 2.45%, and the Nasdaq Composite was down 4.92%. For the year-to-date, the DJIA is up 1.06%, the S&P 500 is up 1.47%, and the Nasdaq Composite is up 2.36%.

Stocks fluctuated on Friday morning amid continued inflation concerns, a day after Thursday's sharp selloff. The Commerce Department reported that consumer spending rose 2.4% in January after declining in December, helped by government pandemic relief checks and a reduction in new coronavirus cases. The Dow fell 1.0%, the S&P fell 0.1%, and the Nasdaq rose 0.6%. Crude oil traded near $62 per barrel, while gold fell $44 to $1731 per ounce.

Vickers Stock Research, a subsidiary of Argus Research Group, tracks and analyzes insider trading and institutional ownership trends. Form 13-Fs are due 45 days after the end of calendar quarters, and are now coming in from 4Q20. We review the 13Fs of the major activist investors, including Carl Icahn, Trian Fund Management, Jana Partners, and ValueAct Holdings, among others. Activist investing has evolved and is now less about generating a short-term return on an underpriced stock and more about achieving long-term returns through an active management/investor partnership. Here are some recent new purchases and key holdings of activist investors, according to Vickers.

This pick list highlights constituents of the Morningstar US Mid Cap Index that we believe offer investors the best risk-adjusted return prospects. The market capitalization range for U.S. mid-caps typically falls between $1 billion and $8 billion and represents 20% of the total capitalization of the U.S. equity market.

The Argus Research Fundamental Universe of Coverage includes approximately 500 leading U.S. and international companies. We cover the waterfront -- from Technology to Utilities to Energy to Healthcare. Generally, we follow the Top 200 most widely held stocks, which we source from our sister company Vickers Stock Research (which collects institutional ownership data from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission). From there, we look to identify the next 200-300 leading U.S. and international companies to add to our list. Our Universe of Coverage is dynamic and growing. We are continually adding stocks to coverage and often get great ideas from our clients. Here are five of our most recent additions.

Stocks rallied on Thursday morning, recovering from Wednesday's selloff, amid lower-than-expected jobless claims. The Labor Department reported that first-time claims for state unemployment benefits fell to 847,000 for the week ended January 23, down from a revised 914,000 a week earlier and below the Bloomberg consensus forecast of 875,000. The Dow rose 1.8%, the S&P 1.6%, and the Nasdaq 0.9%. Crude oil rose to $53 per barrel, while gold traded near $1866 per ounce.

In 1849, Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr wrote, 'The more things change, the more they stay the same.' Now, over 170 years later, his prophetic statement aligns perfectly with stock-market sentiment.

We saw some strange trading days in late 2020, and the majority of them had to do with the massive rotation that was happening at the time. But maybe we should start calling days like Thursday, January 14 more the norm than wacky. As we said recently, 2021 is starting out as the polar opposite of 2020 -- at least as far as the markets are concerned.

Stocks rallied through the final nine months of 2020 despite the raging pandemic, a summer of unprecedented wildfires, and an increasingly partisan political climate. Stocks have done so, at least partly, because the worst economic effects of the pandemic have hit those living toward the lower end of the economic scale, while leaving others largely unscathed.

The U.S. economy lost 140,000 jobs in December -- reversing a positive pattern of employment recovery that had been in place since May. Job losses in the leisure and hospitality sectors reflected the recent increase in coronavirus cases in the U.S. and the efforts of states to contain the pandemic. The unemployment rate was steady at 6.7%. Notable job losses occurred over the month in leisure, education and government. The number of jobs increased in the temporary help and courier segments. In December, 23.7% of employed persons teleworked because of the coronavirus pandemic, up from 21.8% in November. The number of unemployed persons, at 10.7 million, was up 5 million from the February level. On Thursday, the Labor Department reported that another 787,000 people filed initial unemployment claims, and the total of continuous claims was 5.2 million, down from 6.2 million a month ago. These data points indicate that the employment environment, while improving, is still under stress. We expect the unemployment rate will remain high (and the Federal Reserve will keep interest rates low) into 2021 as the U.S. economy slowly recovers.

This pick list highlights constituents of the Morningstar US Mid Cap Index that we believe offer investors the best risk-adjusted return prospects. The market capitalization range for U.S. mid-caps typically falls between $1 billion and $8 billion and represents 20% of the total capitalization of the U.S. equity market.

This pick list highlights constituents of the Morningstar US Large Cap Index that we believe offer investors the best risk-adjusted return prospects. Stocks of large-cap companies where neither growth nor value characteristics predominate. Stocks in the top 70% of the capitalization of the U.S. equity market are defined as large cap.

Stocks fell on Friday morning as a long-awaited fiscal stimulus package remained elusive despite signs that Democrats and Republicans were moving closer to an agreement. Congress is instead likely to first pass another stopgap spending bill that will keep the government running past midnight, while also providing time for additional stimulus negotiations. The package under discussion reportedly includes one-time payments of $600 to most Americans, extended unemployment benefits, help for states in vaccine distribution, and aid for small businesses. The Dow fell 0.6%, the S&P 0.6%, and the Nasdaq 0.3%. Crude oil traded near $49 per barrel, while gold rose $1 to $1892 per ounce.

After a strong first week of December, stocks stalled in week two. Concerns about the economy faltering from the current COVID-19 wave were punctuated when weekly initial unemployment claims were at the highest reading since September, and continuing claims increased. Hopes that the report would spur action on a stimulus package were dashed when Congress went home for the weekend with nothing settled.