Dow Jones Futures: Market looks ready to run; 5 stocks to buy as Tesla settles in

 Dow Jones futures will open Sunday evening along with S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq futures.  The Federal Reserve meeting is around the corner as investors are expecting a shift towards rate cuts.

  After Wednesday, there was a slight weekly gain in the stock market rally with the rise in major indices.  The S&P 500 hit a 2023 high on Friday, while the Nasdaq is right at its peak.  Many stocks are trying to break out, including many chip plays.

   Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) racked up buy marks on new AI chips last week, challenging Nvidia (NVDA) in the huge, fast-growing artificial intelligence accelerator market.  Nvidia stock, for its part, retreated toward a buy point and slipped in some early entries.  Arm Holdings (ARM) broke its IPO base on Friday.  Broadcom (AVGO) withdrew its buyout offer after earnings Friday.  Taiwan Semiconductor (TSM), which makes chips for Nvidia, AMD, Broadcom Apple (AAPL) and many others, often from Arm chip designs, showed an early filing on Friday.

     Meanwhile, Tesla (TSLA) continues to trade strongly as it slowly moves towards its aggressive entries.

   Finally, the FDA approved the first gene-editing treatments from Crispr Therapeutics (CRSP) and Vertex Pharmaceuticals (VRTX).  But CRSP stock, which had soared Friday morning and over the past several weeks, declined sharply upon the announcement in a classic "sell the news" event.

    The last Fed meeting of 2023 will be held on Tuesday-Wednesday.  No action is expected, but Fed chief Jerome Powell may signal that he and his policymakers are now leaning toward cutting rates in 2024.

           Stock market rally

  The stock market rally started the week with a decline, but picked up pace on Thursday and ended with modest gains on the major indexes.

    The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 2 points in last week's stock market trading. The S&P 500 index rose 0.2%. The Nasdaq Composite rose 0.7%, reversing to the upside after paring some short-term lows on Monday.

    On Friday, the S&P 500 surpassed its highest level of 2023 in July, while the Nasdaq set its final high for the year. A decisive clearing of the recent range would indicate that the market rally is beginning another phase.