Take a look at last week’s market recap from Joe Gallemore, CIMA® Partner & Director of Investment Management for Argent Bridge Advisors. Watch the video now!
Joe’s Notes:
A very good two weeks for stocks.
- SP 500 up just under 7%
- Reits & Lg Growth up a little over +8%
- Bond gained about 1.8%
Last week saw the Utilities sector turn positive YTD. So now 2 sectors are in the black.
- Energy obviously because energy prices have boosted those stocks.
- And now Utilities. Stocks in the Utilities sector tend to perform well when there is more economic and market uncertainty because their revenue streams are relatively stable and most of those stocks pay nice dividends.
The big news out of last week was that US GDP contracted for 2nd consecutive quarter. This is commonly the most basic definition of a recession, but that is not actually the case.
- The official decision on a recession is made by a panel at the National Bureau of Economic Research.
- Typically in a recession, you see rising unemployment, which usually leads to a slowdown in consumer spending, and Industrial activity slows. We’re not really seeing that right now. There is still a lot of demand in the labor market for workers, consumer spending is still strong, and the leading indicators of industrial activity published in the last couple of weeks were surprisingly positive. The Industrials sector was +5.7%.
- Because of all the mixed data, there is no consensus on whether a recession will happen or not. While there’s still a significant chance of a full recession materializing, it is not automatic.
- I’ll end with a tongue-in-cheek anecdote… this week I read of a financial writer who coined the term “Vibecession.” Everyone’s walking and talking with the recession vibe even though we’re not in one and may still avoid it. I blame that one on crazy inflation and high prices.
