John Hancock: Weekly Market Recap Week Ended May 28th
Growth recovery
For the second week in a row, growth stocks chipped away at the year-to-date dominance of value-oriented stocks, as a U.S. large-cap growth index outperformed its value counterpart by a wide margin. That weekly trend helped lift the growth- and tech-oriented NASDAQ, which outperformed the S&P 500 and the Dow.
May flowers
May was the sixth positive month out of the past seven for the S&P 500, which rose nearly 1%. The Dow added about 2% while the NASDAQ lagged, falling more than 1% and snapping a six-month string of gains.
Inflation watch
The measure that the U.S. Federal Reserve prefers for tracking inflation surged 3.1% for the 12-month period ended in April, exceeding the Fed’s 2.0% inflation target. Friday’s report on the increase in the price index for personal consumption reflected a surge in consumer demand as pandemic-related restrictions are rolled back.
Jobs ahead
A monthly jobs report due out on Friday will give a further indication on the state of the U.S. labor market recovery as pandemic restrictions are rolled back. The update will follow a weak April jobs report that showed the economy generated 266,000 new jobs—far below economists’ expectations—as the unemployment rate rose from 6.0% to 6.1%.
Source: https://wmr.jhinvestments.com/