NDS Weekly 5.6.24 – Market Recap

Equity markets rose again last week, starting May on a positive note as investors became more hopeful that the Fed will loosen monetary policy later this year.

For the week, the DJIA increased 1.14% while the S&P 500 added on 0.56%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq gained 1.44%. International markets were also positive on the week with the MSCI EAFE Index (developed countries) and emerging market equities (MSCI EM) increasing 1.66% and 2.03%, respectively. Small company stocks, represented by the Russell 2000, were up 1.77%. Fixed income, represented by the Bloomberg Aggregate, recovered 1.17% for the week, as yields were lower across the entire yield curve. The 10 YR US Treasury yield declined 17bps closing at a yield of 4.50%. Gold prices closed at $2,294/oz. – down 1.45% on the week. Oil prices, declined by $4.00 to close at $78.99 per barrel.

The FOMC on Wednesday held benchmark interest rates steady for the sixth straight time, citing a lack of further progress on inflation in recent months. Investors became more optimistic on Friday after government data showed the US economy added fewer jobs than expected last month while wage growth eased. Total non-farm payrolls added 175,000 jobs in April which was considerably lower than consensus estimates of 240,000. The unemployment rate ticked up to 3.9% from 3.8% from the month prior. Wages grew at a modest 0.2% month-over-month (3.9%y/y). The economic calendar is light this week with only a report on preliminary consumer sentiment due to be released.

Quarter earnings continued to come in mostly above analysts' expectations. Last week saw better-than-expected results from Amazon (AMZN) and Apple (APPL) among many others. For the quarter, 77% of companies have beat on earnings-per-share while 58% of companies have beat on expected revenues. Earnings this week will focus on consumer companies with results expected from Disney and Airbnb.  

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