Market Drama

Welcome to this week’s Market Drama!

• The Stock Market:
  • The S&P 500 was up 2.4% for the week.
    • It’s up 17% year-to-date. 
  • Nasdaq was up 3.3%.
    • Up 35% year-to-date. 
  • Main reason for market enthusiasm has to do with the inflation numbers for June. 
  • 25% rally over the last 9 months for stocks, mainly driven by valuation expansion. 
  • For earnings, companies are reporting above expectations. 
• Economic Data:
  • Expectations for the Fed to cut interest rates in March of 2024, rather than in May of 2024.
  • We start to see that inflation is coming down.
  • Headline inflation for June came in at 3%.
  • Core CPI came in at 4.8% (better than expected and the lowest we’ve seen since October 2021).

What to look out for this week: 

• Earnings will be a big part of the story.
• June retail sales and housing market data.

Stay tuned for next week. Have a good one.

– Andres