(CercleFinance.com) – The ‘3 witches’ session kept all its promises on Wall Street with US indices which ended the month of May at the zenith, with strong scores (from +5.6% to +9, 5% compared to April 19), after having set new absolute records. And the icing on the cake, the Dow Jones finished at more than 40,000 (+0.3% to 40,003) thanks to a providential boost of +25 points, at the very last minute.
The Nasdaq Composite rose towards 16,700 from the opening (+0.2%), but lost its tone from midday to end down -0.1% at 16,686: nice consolation all the same with a gain monthly close to +10% (this was the case at 16,725 around 4:30 p.m.), which turns out to be the most spectacular since May…2000. The most active stocks of the day were Netflix +1.7%, Tesla +1.5%, Alphabet +1.1%, Nvidia -2%, Western Digital -2.7%, Illumina -3%.
But special mention for the S&P500 (+0.1%) which reached 5,300 (at 5,303) and recorded 11 sessions of increases out of 12 in May… and four out of five this week. Over the past month, the ‘S&P’ will have gained 6.8%, again, the best ‘May’ vintage in 24 years.
And ‘last but not least’, the VIX associated with the S&P500 fell below the threshold of 12 (contraction of -3.6% to 11.95). Excessive appetite for risk or excessive complacency, current VIX levels appear completely disconnected from rate conditions and warning signals of an economic slowdown in the United States.
Concerning the bond, the yield on the ’10 year’ rose by +5 basis points to 4.425% after falling on Thursday to 4.32%, a lowest in more than a month, the weekly score remaining all the same friendly with -7.5 basis points since May 10.
On the US ‘stats’ side, the index of leading indicators fell more sharply than expected, by -0.6% to 101.8 according to the Conference Board, which saw this as a sign of a slowdown in the economy with the deterioration of consumer morale, the weakness of business order intake and the decline in building permits, but also by the correction of the stock markets in April.
Note that next week will be marked by Nvidia’s quarterly results. Analysts expect better than expected performance from the processor manufacturer and an increase in its annual targets, as the Californian group is accustomed to.
Apart from the interest rate and equity markets, the most notable event of this Friday was the confirmed ‘breakout’ of silver above $29.3 (+3.5% at 30, 70$, ten-year record) and the return of the ounce of gold above $2,400 (to $2,410), despite the deterioration of rates and the strengthening of the dollar towards 1.0850/E.
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