S&P 500 notches fifth straight record closing high, fifth straight quarterly gain

For the last day of Q2 there was another flight from tech and into value as the Nasdaq suffered a modest setback but the Dow zoomed 210 points and the S&P, with four straight closing highs, edged up another 5 points for a fifth straight record. The S&P is up 14% for the first half of the year and has also clocked its fifth consecutive month of gains. It is the second best first-half performance since 1998.  The payroll report showed more than 90,000 more new jobs than had been forecasted for a total of 692,000 adding more assurances that the Fed is right about inflation, that it’s only transitory. The market continues to be on a tear with volume very close to the 4-week average at 10.8 billion.  

S&P, Nasdaq rise to record closes

All the indexes rallied this morning, the Dow up nearly 200 points, before drifting into a steady decline with each closing with only very modest gains. In other words, based solely on closing numbers, the market didn’t move at all today. But since the S&P and Nasdaq had already reached new records in prior sessions, it was another new record for both today. They called today a “digestion period” as everyone awaits Friday’s payroll report but an upbeat consumer confidence report (the highest in over a year) triggered the big wave this morning and especially sent investors more than ever back to tech, as inflation worries continue to wane.  Q2 reporting begins in a couple of weeks and is expected to be a fifth straight quarter of gains. As the market waits for more data, volume remains below average at 9.6 billion. 

Tech stock rally sends S&P 500 and Nasdaq to record highs

As has been the trend for some time now, one day sees investors flooding out of tech and into value, another day the reverse.  Today was the reverse with the markets rotating out of cyclicals and into tech as Q2 looks to be robust and while interest rates are low and the environment is risk-on. The S&P is up 14% for the first half of 2021 and Q2 S&P earnings growth is expected to top 60 percent. Later this week will be the critical monthly reports on consumer confidence and employment. Volume was below the 4-week average at 9.5 billion. 

The Folly of Global Housing?

For the third weekend, there is no weekly summary on The Big Picture blog. Is it safe to say Barry Ritholtz has discontinued it? I emailed him about it, told him that it was the one post every week that everyone in my group valued the most, but he has not responded. So what do you need to know except that on Thursday and Friday the market fully recovered all the losses from the previous Thursday and Friday.  

Seeing Price and Volume

For your weekend reading this time around I submit the PowerPoint presentation on Price and Volume at the June AAII meeting. It's a brief set of slides but there is some useful resource info in there.  

S&P 500 closes at record high, lifted by Nike and banks

For a second day the markets processed the better than expected inflation data and infrastructure deal and pulled profits out of tech and back into the more conventional sectors of materials, banking and industrials.  The S&P reached a new record and PCE data lent further assurances that inflation was under control. As today’s expert put it, “The positive news from the infrastructure package favors the S&P more than Nasdaq. The Nasdaq does not pour cement into roads and put steel in bridges. That’s the S&P.”  The Russell reconstituting its indexes today artificially inflated volume figures to an enormous 15 billion vs the 11.2 billion average so we’ll have to wait until Monday for more reliable data. 

Nasdaq and S&P 500 end at record highs; Dow rallies

As of today, I have officially recouped the $4,000 I lost last week during the big dip and both the S&P and Nasdaq have reached new highs for the third consecutive day.  Once again there was a rush to tech with the growth index spurting 4% vs a decline of 2% in the value index. But overall, value is still beating tech with the S&P up 14% for the year vs 11% for the Nasdaq.  Unemployment fell but not by nearly as much as the forecast – 7,000 vs the expected 31,000. The economy grew by 6.4% in Q1 which was right on forecast.  We’ll see how the week ends. Volume was considerably below average at 9.2 billion.