Happy September! As some of you may know, September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. On Friday, I had the pleasure of golfing at Revere as part of Diazo's sponsorship of the Viva St. Jude Golf Tournament to raise money to end childhood cancer. For those of you who missed it a few weeks ago, you can catch a new St. Jude interview with Laura and me this coming Wednesday, September 13th on News Channel 3 during their 6pm news program! Our entire Diazo team will also be participating in the St. Jude Run/Walk happening on Saturday, September 23rd at Town Square. If you'd like to join to walk with Team Diazo Wealth, you can sign up by clicking here.
And now onto the weekly recap:
The stock market registered broad-based losses on this holiday-shortened week. The price action in stocks was largely dictated by moves in Apple (AAPL), market rates, and oil. Some sessions this week featured below-average volume as participants remained in vacation mode after Labor Day weekend.
Apple (AAPL) declined 6.0% this week following reports that Chinese officials are being prohibited from using Apple devices. Semiconductor stocks also sold off in sympathy. The PHLX Semiconductor Index fell 3.2%.
The news goes beyond Apple and the semiconductor stocks, however. The worry for the market is that, if China purposely chooses to make business difficult for a company like Apple, which has a good and important working relationship in China, then it can do so for a lot of other U.S. companies doing business in China.
The sharp increase in oil prices prompted worries about inflation expectations and consumer spending pressures. That understanding contributed to this week's stock sell off. WTI crude oil futures jumped $1.92, or 2.2%, to $87.47/bbl. That move follows news that Saudi Arabia and Russia are planning to extend their voluntary oil production cuts of 1 million barrels per day and 300,000 barrels per day, respectively, through the end of 2023.
Treasury yields climbed this week as market participants reacted to a slate of economic data. The 2-yr note yield rose nine basis points to 4.97% and the 10-yr note yield rose nine basis points to 4.26%.
The ISM Services PMI showed that services sector activity accelerated in August but prices also increased at a faster pace. The latter will be a concerning development presumably for the Fed, which will be contemplating the notion of rates needing to stay higher for longer.
Initial jobless claims for the week ending September 2 were just 216,000 -- the lowest since February -- and that Q2 productivity was revised lower (to 3.5% from 3.7%) while unit labor costs were revised higher (to 2.2% from 1.6%).
Only two of the S&P 500 sectors logged a gain -- energy (+1.4%) and utilities (+0.3%) -- while the industrials (-2.9%), information technology (-2.3%), and materials (-2.5%) sectors all declined more than 2.0%.
Below are truncated summaries of daily action:
The data provided is for informational purposes only and is not an endorsement of any security, mutual fund, sector, or index. The information contained here is not guaranteed as to accuracy or completeness. All economic and performance information is historical and does not guarantee future results.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average is a price-weighted index comprising 30 widely traded blue chip U.S. common stocks. The NASDAQ Composite Index is a market-value-weighted index of all common stocks listed on the NASDAQ stock exchange. The S&P 500 Index tracks the performance of 500 of the largest publicly traded companies in the United States. The MSCI Europe, Australasia, and Far East (EAFE) Index tracks the performance of publicly traded large- and mid-cap stocks of companies in those regions. The Cboe Volatility Index (VIX) shows the market’s expectation of 30-day volatility and is constructed using the implied volatilities of a wide range of S&P 500 Index options. Weekly and year-to-date figures for the VIX show percentage changes, not investment returns. The Russell 2000 Index tracks the performance of approximately 2,000 publicly traded small-cap companies in the United States. It is not possible to invest directly in an index.
The Treasury yield curve is derived from available U.S. Treasury securities trading in the market and is provided directly by the U.S. Federal Reserve. The spread measures the difference in yield between two government securities. A normal (positive) yield curve occurs when longer-term rates are higher than shorter-term rates. The opposite holds true for an inverted yield curve. Year-to-date changes in U.S. Treasury bond yields are shown in basis points (bps). One hundred basis points equals one percent.
Oil prices are represented by West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil.
The G20 countries comprise a mix of the world’s largest advanced and emerging economies, representing about two-thirds of the world’s population, 85% of global gross domestic product, and over 75% of global trade.