Market View

US Federal Reserve left the key policy rate unchanged this month, while signaling that interest rates could rise further this year. US annual headline and core inflation in May fell to their lowest levels since March 2021 and November 2021, respectively. The Canadian dollar was 75.74 cents USD. The U.S. S&P500 ended the week up 2.5%, while the TSX was up 0.7%.

It was a week of mostly modest greens. Consumer discretionary rose 3.3%, followed by Industrials at 2.0%. Financials gained 1.8%, and technology and healthcare added 0.8%, each. Energy gave up 1.4%. The most heavily traded shares by volume were Manulife Financial Corp, Barrick Gold Corp, and Toronto-Dominion Bank.

5 from 5i

Here are five reads we found interesting last week:

• Profit inflation is real, by Servaas Storm of the Institute for New Economic Thinking
• Do economic crises in Europe affect the US? Some lessons from the past three decades, authored by Ozge Akinci and Paolo Pesenti of Liberty Street Economics
• The 60:40 portfolio is up more than 17%. Why is it doing so much better this year? Written by Mark Hulbert
• Consumer sentiment is low – that’s a good sign for stocks, by John Rekenthaler of Morningstar
• Are personal consumption expenditures a helpful forecasting (or even nowcasting) metric? Published on the Bonddad Blog

Happy Reading & Stay Safe!

Disclosure: The analyst(s) responsible for this report do not have a financial or other interest in securities mentioned.