There was an onslaught of data last week, which led to gains. Should more be expected with the coming earnings season?
Monday S&P 500 0.27%| NASDAQ 1.09%
ISM Manufacturing unexpectedly slipped and remains in contractionary territory. The weaker economic data would typically signal lower rates as rate cut expectations would increase. To the contrary, 10-year treasuries rose on the day. In the face of weak economic data, the start of the quarter brought optimism towards the next three months.
Tuesday S&P 500 0.62% | NASDAQ .84%
JOLTs job openings rose more than expected to 8.14M openings. For perspective, there were 6.6M unemployed as of the May report. The strong jobs data did not deter markets, though; this may be because the Federal Reserve Board (FRB) Chair, J. Powell, spoke on the day. He indicated that progress is being made towards their inflation target. This is the ‘secret sauce’ needed to justify future rate cuts.
Wednesday S&P 500 0.51% | NASDAQ 0.88%
Initial jobless claims rose for the week to 238K from 234K; the level remains elevated, albeit from all-time lows. Factory orders unexpectedly slipped into the negative on the month. Additionally, ISM Services unexpectedly slipped into contractionary territory. This is all bad news for economic production, so why did the markets rise? Interest rates fell as this data increases the likelihood that the FRB will lower rates sooner than expected. The heightened odds are now calling for a .25% cut in September and December, according to CME FedWatch.
Thursday S&P 500 -% | NASDAQ -%
Happy Independence Day!
Friday S&P 500 0.54% | NASDAQ 0.90%
Happy Jobs Friday! The unemployment rate rose to 4.1%, Nonfarm payrolls beat expectations, and participation rose to 62.6% from 62.5%, all for June. The unemployment rate went up even though we added 206K jobs??? Participation went up so, with more people in the market, the rate can go up even as jobs are added. This is a positive signal that workers are returning to the work force. The rise on equity markets, however, was on hopes that economic weakness would be enough for an FRB rate cut.
Conclusion S&P 500 1.95% | NASDAQ 3.55%
This was a busy week for economic data, especially for a holiday shortened week. We got weaker Jobs, manufacturing, Services, and Factory orders. The weakness led to stronger markets on hopes the FRB will cut rates BEFORE a recession can materialize. The coming week starts second quarter earnings. Valuations are stretched (S&P 500 P/E: 28.94) and economic production is weak, very little should be expected from this season. This could be the start of volatility that would lead into the Autumn.
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Is Santa’s rally coming, or will Omicron steal the show? Most importantly, what does it all mean for 2022?
Monday
The week opened in free fall as the Nasdaq led the way lower. Omicron news and the Build Back Better plan getting nixed seemed to sour investors to open the week. Haven stocks did not gain interest in leu of an equity sell off. This came as a result of the anticipated Federal Reserve Board (FRB) rate increases in 2022.
Tuesday
Markets spiked up on Tuesday. It was strongly seen as investors deciding to ‘buy the dip’. There has been a 3% pullback over the last few sessions. The S&P 500 gained 1.78% on the day.
Wednesday
‘Buy the dip’ continued on Wednesday. One clear distinction from a normal ‘buy the dip’ is that volumes are definitely holiday lite. That means that very little can be made of the current rally. The S&P 500 ended up gaining 1.01%.
Thursday
In a holiday shortened trading week, markets climbed to close the week. A word of caution would be that trading volume has been extremely light! It has been running 25% of that of a normal trading day. Not surprising, but cause for caution that this buy spree may not be well founded.
Friday
Merry Christmas! Don’t shoot your eye out!
Conclusion
The week started with an echo of last week’s trading weakness. It very quickly shifted to perhaps the beginning of a Santa Claus rally. Historically, this occurs the week between Christmas and New Year’s. Again, on light trading volume. This could lead to a strong year end but could be of concern for a pullback in January. Also, given past circumstances, the US will likely be in the thick of the Omicron variant come January.
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