Weekly Market Bullets

for the week ending 6/21/2024

• US Equity Markets continued to march higher last week on holiday-shortened trading, as lukewarm economic data reaffirmed investor hopes for rate cuts later this year. The S&P 500 rose 0.6% for the week, again touching all-time highs and bringing its gains for the year to 14.6%. The Nasdaq was flat for the week as profit-taking in the mega-cap tech stocks offset early gains, and it remains up 17.8% for the year. The Russell 2000 (small cap stocks) rose 0.8% for the week but is still down 0.3% for the year.

• Global Equity Markets rose last week as gains in Europe following rate decisions from 3 central banks offset declines in Asia amid inflation concerns. Developed Markets eked out a 0.04% gain for the week to remain up 2.7% for the year. Emerging Markets increased 0.9% for the week to bring its gains for the year to 6.2%.

• US Economic Data suggested an easing consumer. Retail Sales for May were up 0.1% from the prior month, worse than expected, while April monthly sales were revised downward to -0.2%. Retail Sales excluding Autos, which are examined to remove the impact of such a high-priced item, fell 0.1% in May from a month ago, also worse than expected, with April's data being revised downward to -0.1%. Initial Jobless Claims have also begun to creep higher, coming in at 238K vs. 216K a month ago and 208K two months ago.

• A search using Artificial Intelligence requires about 10x the amount of electricity than a Google search. As a result, the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) is forecasting that global electricity usage from datacenters should increase by 540 terawatts from 2022 to 2026. That is the equivalent of the amount of electricity that Japan uses in a given year. How can we play that from an investment perspective?

Market Data

for the week ending 6/21/2024