Financial News and Portfolio Management Discussion through May 9th

Stocks gained over the week driven by optimism over the global economy beginning to open back up. The S&P 500 rose 3.6% and the Dow gained 2.7% for the week.  The NASDAQ Composite index closed in positive territory for the year clawing back much of the declines seen over the past two months.  Abroad, the FTSE All World Ex US was up 0.7% for the week.  Oil continued to bounce back with expectations of consumption increasing.  Oil rose 25% for the week to $24.74 a barrel.  The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose slightly over the week to finish at 0.68%.

The unemployment rate surged to a high last seen during the depression of 14.7% in April with 20.5M falling off payrolls.  However, the numbers weren’t as bad as projected by economists.

EU officials projected that the region would suffer “a recession of historic proportions this year” due to the pandemic.  The eurozone economy is projected to shrink 7.7% in 2020, but grow 6.3% in 2021.

Representatives from the US and China spoke easing tensions and fears that tariffs could be ramped back up.

Initial jobless claims were 3.2 million for the week ending May 2nd bringing the total since mid March to 33.5 million.

Numerous companies including Lyft, Uber, GE, United airlines, and Airbnb are making large staffing cuts to slash spending during the pandemic.

With over 85% of S&P 500 firms reporting earnings, earnings are expected to have fallen 14% for the quarter.

There is no guarantee that any investment strategy, including those described here, will be successful. Any investment or investment strategy can lose money. Past performance does not guarantee or predict future results. You should not assume that any discussion or information contained herein serves as the receipt of, or as a substitute for, personalized investment advice from Raffa Wealth Management, LLC. This information was gathered from reliable sources, but we cannot guarantee accuracy. Indexes do not reflect the fees associated with actual investments and such fees would reduce the performance illustrated. Source: FMG Suite, LLC.
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