Hey Everyone! This is a long holiday weekend for American markets with Independence Day on Sunday and Monday being a holiday. I hope everyone will enjoy the weekend. Enjoy this week’s market round-up.
Weekly Sound Bites:
- The S&P and Nasdaq moved to new highs and closed out a fifth consecutive quarterly advance. Large-cap growth stocks led the gains, with the Russell 1000 Growth stretching its weekly winning streak to eight…meanwhile the S&P’s Friday’s close was its seventh all time high in a row, the longest streak since 1997 and it’s first half gain this year was the best since 2019 and the second best since 1998… U.S. markets were set to be closed this coming Monday, July 4 in observance of the Independence Day holiday…
- On Friday, the Labor Department reported that employers had added 850,000 nonfarm jobs in June, well above consensus estimates of around 700,000 and the most since last August. Weekly jobless claims also fell more than expected, to a pandemic-era low of 364,000… The Institute for Supply Management’s (ISM’s) gauge of factory activity fell a bit more than expected but still indicated healthy expansion and pending home sales data may have been the biggest surprise of the week, jumping 8% in May in contrast to consensus expectations for a slight decrease…
- U.S. Treasury yields decreased through most of the week, particularly for the longest maturities…some analysts cited investors’ month-end rebalancing needs and the Fed’s buying of longer-dated Treasuries among the factors behind the lower yields…
- Shares in Europe were down slightly on worries that inflationary pressures might bring forward interest rate increases… Core eurozone government bond yields fell, reflecting growing fears about the spread of the delta variant of the coronavirus in Europe…The eurozone’s index of consumer prices fell to 1.9% in June from 2.0% in May, according to a first estimate from Eurostat. Inflation has ticked up for six consecutive months and is near the ECB’s target of “below but close to 2.0%.” The euro area jobless rate fell to a seasonally adjusted 7.9% in May from 8.1% in April but was up from 7.5% in May 2020. IHS Markit’s eurozone purchasing managers’ index (PMI) came in at 63.4 in June—above the flash estimate and its highest reading on record—suggesting that the expansion in the manufacturing sector was even stronger than initially estimated.
- Chinese stocks fell for the week. Both the Shanghai Composite Index and large-cap CSI 300 Index posted a weekly loss after each index recorded its biggest one-day percentage drop since early March on Friday…June’s official manufacturing PMI met expectations. However, the nonmanufacturing PMI came in weaker than expected
Enjoy our Weekly Round-Up ;
Don’t Be A Rat Brain Trader – Be the Red Stripe Zebra !!
Trade Smart !
hpb
