Money Watch Weekly Wrap
US stocks fell for the fourth straight week, which means that May 2011 will be the first month since June 2008 that stocks don't have one single week of gains. Baseball fans might quote the legendary Yogi Berra and wonder whether this market action is "déjà vu all over again"?
A year ago, stocks tumbled 7.9 percent in May, as worries of European debt, a slow down in global growth and the end of Federal Reserve action pushed investors to the sidelines. This year, those same doubts linger, in addition to high oil prices, all of which has prompted a 2.4 percent sell-off from three-year highs reached on April 29th. Still, with corporate profits brisk, stock indexes still remain solidly in the plus column for the year.
- DJIA: 12,411, down 0.5% on week, up 7.4% YTD
- S&P 500: 1331, down 0.1% on week, up 5.8% YTD
- NASDAQ: 2796, down 0.2% on week, up 5.4% YTD
- June Crude Oil: $100.59, up 0.5% on week
- August Gold: $1537.30, up 1.8% on week
Total bank failures for 2011 = 44 (1 new bank failure over weekend)
IN THE WEEK AHEAD: The Labor Department's May employment report will be the main attraction of the week. Economists expect that 190,000 new jobs were created, after the pleasantly surprising April addition of 244,000 and the unemployment rate ticked down to 8.9 percent from 9 percent. There will also be data on the housing market, which is likely to see a further decline in prices and manufacturing which probably slowed a bit over the past month.
Mon 5/30: US Markets closed for Memorial Day
Tues 5/31:
9:00 Case Shiller HPI
9:45 Chicago CPI
10:00 Consumer Confidence
Weds 6/1:
Motor Vehicle Sales
8:15 ADP Employment Report
10:00 ISM Manufacturing Index
10:00 Construction Spending
Thurs 6/2:
Chain Store Sales
8:30 Weekly Claims
8:30 Productivity and Costs
10:00 Factory Orders
Fri 5/27:
8:30 Employment Situations
10:00 ISM Non-Manufacturing