This week brought us our first look at Las Vegas reopened. Monday night brought big celebrations on the Strip as the clock ticked towards 12:01 am June 1st, marking the end of pandemic restrictions and allowing businesses to open at 100% capacity.
The crowds did not wait, however, as we saw a large turnout for the holiday weekend, providing a much-needed tourism boost to our city, which had one of the worst jobless rates in the country this time last year, at 34%. Next week, we will see the arrival of the first major trade show to return to Las Vegas, and the debut of the LVCVA's $1 billion expansion of the convention center.
As we have seen the rebound take place over the last 15 months, with these events here locally, we are now starting to see true effects of a recovery.
The family and I will be taking a short day-trip to the California coast this weekend, in our first trip since January of last year. What plans are you making for the summer?
Now on to the summary for the week -
U.S. stocks managed to finish with a second-straight weekly advance on the heels of the May labor report that showed a solid acceleration in job growth but at a pace that was below forecasts.
Growth stocks, notably the Information Technology and Communications Services sectors, led the way as Treasuries rose to apply downside pressure on yields and the U.S. dollar gave back yesterday's gains. Gold and crude oil prices traded to the upside.
In equity news, Broadcom topped quarterly expectations, Costco Wholesale posted strong May same-store sales growth, Lululemon Athletica topped earnings estimates and raised its guidance, and CrowdStrike Holdings saw pressure despite exceeding profit forecasts and issuing favorable guidance.
Europe showed some late-day momentum to finish mostly higher, and Asia finished mixed, but action remained choppy amid the grappling with economic optimism and inflation uncertainty.
On the news front, the G-7 neared an agreement on a 15% global minimum corporate tax while the Biden administration negotiated the terms of an infrastructure spending package with Republicans. The administration also signaled openness to implementing a minimum corporate tax rate of 15% instead of raising the top rate to 28% from 21%.
As an aggregate the stock market ended the first week of June on a higher note with the Dow, S&P 500, and Nasdaq advancing a respective 0.7%, 0.6%, and 0.5%.
The first half of the abbreviated week was very quiet, as the S&P 500 shed two points on Tuesday and gained six on Wednesday. That masked a strong start from the energy sector, which gained 6.7% during the week, extending its year-to-date advance to 45.3%. The sector benefited from a 5.0% rally in the price of oil, which climbed to $69.61/bbl, its highest level since mid-October 2018.
Growth stocks showed some weakness on Thursday, pressuring sectors like technology, communication services, and consumer discretionary. However, they bounced on Friday as Treasury yields fell in response to a weaker than expected Employment Situation report for May. Technology and communication services gained a respective 1.2% and 0.6% for the week while the consumer discretionary sector lost 1.0%.
The past week saw renewed volatility in stocks that made headlines earlier this year. AMC (AMC) surged 95.2% on Wednesday and gained 83.4% for the week while GameStop (GME) and Bed Bath & Beyond (BBBY ) gained a respective 11.9% and 13.3% for the week.
As always, it is my pleasure to bring you this weekly update. If this or anything else is causing you pause or you would like further details, please feel free to reach out to me and we can schedule some time to chat.
Justin J. Long CFP®
Founder/Lead Advisor
Diazo Wealth Group
702-745-1800 Direct
702-278-6560 Cell
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Source: 1. FactSet
Source: Week in perspective provided by Briefing.com. Briefing.com offers live market analysis on their web site www.Briefing.com.
Innovative Adviser Solutions, LLC, a registered investment adviser, dba Diazo Wealth