Telemus Weekly Market Review July 6th - July 10th, 2020

June 29 – July 3 Week in Review

It was mostly a positive week for stocks last week. The S&P 500 rose a respectable 1.8%, followed by a 1.0% gain for the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The tech heavy Nasdaq Composite was where most of the action was, rising 4.0% and closing at a record high in four of the five trading sessions. The small-cap Russell 2000 couldn’t keep up with its larger cap brethren declining 0.6% for the week.

The S&P 500 consumer discretionary, communication services, and information technology sectors were largely responsible for the market's advance. Conversely, the energy, real estate, industrials, health care, and utilities sectors finished lower last week.

Once again the bull market in mega-cap technology stocks was hard to miss last week. Tesla rose 27% despite the lack of any real news. Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet, and Facebook rose between 3-6% as investor enthusiasm for these names continued. Amazon rose 10% brushing aside reports that Walmart is planning to launch a competing delivery service this month. Although not quite a tech stock yet Walmart shares also gained 10%.

On Friday, many of the mega-cap technology stocks did take a breather, as investors rotated back into cyclical and value stocks. In other positive news Gilead Sciences said new data showed an improvement in severely-ill COVID-19 patients and a 62% reduction in the risk of mortality compared to the standard of care when treated with its drug Remdesivir.

In M&A news, Warren Buffett made his first major deal during the pandemic, agreeing to acquire Dominion Energy's natural gas assets for $4 billion in cash and assuming $5.7 billion in debt. Uber agreed to acquire privately held Postmates for $2.65 billion.

In overseas news last week a front-page editorial in one of China's state-run news outlets suggested a "healthy bull market" was imminent for Chinese stocks. Not surprisingly China's Shanghai Composite rose 7.3% last week.

U.S. Treasuries finished the week mixed. The 2 year yield increased one basis point to 0.16%, while the 10 year yield decreased four basis points to 0.63%.

In other markets the U.S. Dollar Index declined 0.7% to 96.63, WTI crude increased 0.4% to $40.57 a barrel and gold finished the week at $1,805.40 an ounce.

July 13 – July 17 Economic Calendar