Economic Market Summary

Market Down and Dirty

Last Week’s Economic/Market Summary

 Data 

  • U.S. equity indices gave back some of its recent bounce last week.
    • S&P 500 -1.14% Dow -0.94%, Russell 2000 -0.31%, Nasdaq -0.98%1
      • The All-Country World Index declined 0.60%.1 
    • S&P 500 sub-sectors were mostly lower last week.
      • Energy & Industrials were the only positive sectors. 1 
      • Real Estate, Healthcare, & financials led to the downside with losses over 2%.1 
    • The CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) ended the week at 25.05. 1 
  • US Treasury bond yields were higher last week across the curve.
    • US 2yr +0.18% at 2.65%, 10yr +0.22% to 2.96%, 30yr +0.14% to 3.11%.1 
    • Treasuries have traded very range bound since hitting recent highs in early May. 1 
  • Commodities as an aggregate asset class were higher last week.
    • WTI Crude rose 4.28%.1 
    • Gold declined 0.26%.1 
    • The US Dollar index gained 0.47%.1 
  • In our opinion, U.S. economic data was mixed last week.
    • Friday’s unemployment report showed a gain of 390k jobs in May; higher than expected. 1 
    • The tight labor market was reiterated by the JOLTS report continuing to show high job openings. 1 
    • Manufacturing PMI and US Factory orders rose in May. 1 
  • An index of equities outside the US (FTSE All-World ex-US) went down -0.48%.1

Conclusion 

  • After a big bounce-back two weeks ago, equity markets declined across the board in the holiday shortened trading week.
    • Market participants seemed to remain concerned about rising interest rates & high inflation potentially triggering an economic slowdown. 
    • Also of importance was the labor market which remained remarkable strong.
      • This raises the chances that the Fed will need to continue with its aggressive rate hikes thereby increasing the odds of damaging the economy. 
      • As we’ve said all along…the Fed remains the most important input currently and we’ll continue to monitor the data closely. 
    • Despite the weakness last week, equity benchmarks remain firmly off of their May lows.
    • The small-cap tracking Russell 2000 led to the upside last week with a decline of only 0.31%.1 
    • The S&P 500 was the weakest of the major indices, losing 1.14%.1 
  • S&P 500 subsectors were all lower last week outside of two.
    • Energy led to the upside by a wide margin with a gain of over 1%. Industrials were barely positive at +0.08%.1
      • Energy gained despite OPEC agreeing to boost output by 50%.1 
      • While this looks like a big %, it’s actual increase in barrels is insignificant to the daily worldwide usage. (+0.02%) 
    • Healthcare led to the downside with a loss of over 3%. Financials & Real Estate also lost 2%.1
      • Healthcare has been strong of late so we view this more as profit taking by high-frequency trading firms vs any systemic shift in perception of the sector. 
      • Healthcare continues to have relatively attractive valuations vs the broader market. 
  • The VIX ended the week slightly down and finished right around 25. 1
    • Note the VIX hasn’t made new highs since almost touching 40 in January. 
    • Institutional positioning has continued to “sell volatility” through the year despite equities showing weakness 
    • As discussed, this can reverse course quickly and reiterated the importance of looking beyond the headline VIX level. 
    • There is a massive VIX/Option expiration on the 15th of this month which coincides with the next Federal Reserve meeting. 1
      • Additionally, the 17th is a large equity option expiration. 1 
    • We note that of late, equity markets have shown muted rises into expirations while reversing course afterwards.
      • We continue to be patient in this environment as the underlying state of the economy & its various headwinds have not changed in the last several months. 
  • Emerging Markets continue to be a lone bright spot around global equity markets.
    • Specifically, commodity exporting Emerging Markets and Latin America. 
    • Year-to-date the Latin American MSCI index is up over 15%.1 
    • This is a trend that we could see continue for the next 6-18 months. 

Ryan A. Mumy, CFP®,
AIF® – Chief Investment Officer

Contact: 828/855-9400
info@CIASonline.com or rmumy@bloomberg.net 

 1 Source: Bloomberg – 6/03/2022  

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