US Stock Indexes all fell last week as rising bond yields and Trump appointments spook the Market

With the post Election rally stalling from mid last week the short term focus is moving to the Economic news with an eye on bond yields as they respond to what Trump's policies could mean for inflation. Bond yields have been pretty volatile since the election. 1 yr +0.032% last week and 30 yr +0.052%. Last week's wholesale prices release showed that price rose 0.2% in October, annualised rate of 2.4%. This was in line with expectations and would appear consistent with a further interest rate cut this year.

The US Indexes were all down last week following the post election rally. The VIX was up 2 at 17, although this seems too low considering the recent market swings. On the week the main indexes were; DJIA -0.70%, S&P 500 -1.32% and Nasdaq -2.24% (Mag7 -2.65%). On an equal weighted basis (our measure) the overall market was -3.33% over last week. Breadth of 30% (daily range of 22% to 34% over the last week) . Daily volumes over the last week were 10b (the average daily volume over the last year of 8b). 

Week returns as follows - equal weight basis: Mag7 -2.65% (TSLA -0.2%, AAPL -0.9%, NVDA -3.8% and META -6%), large cap -1.7%, medium cap, -3%, small cap -3.7% and micro cap -3.7%. 

Our risk monitor remains in favour of the larger cap stock. Micro caps have underperformed the market by 1.4% over the two weeks.

Financials and Utilities performed best last week and that trend was repeated most days. Multiline Utilities were +1.3% on the week and Independent Power +2.2%. Within Financials, Banking was +0.3% on the week albeit this sub sector had a strong start to the week and then fell back from Wednesday. Reinsurance +3.9% and Property & Casualty +0.7% performed well throughout the week. Industrials and Technology both started last week strongly but fell with the market from mid week. Aerospace is +0.5% on the week. FinTech helped the Technology sector outperform last week. Fintech was +20.2% on the week with Blockchain +40%. The rest of the Tech sector underperformed the wider market move with Technology Equipment at -5.9%, the worst performer (semicons -7.1%). Following the Trump appointment of RFK Jr to Health Secretary the Healthcare stocks had a very poor week and were -9.1% with the rate of decline accelerating through the week - they were -3.8% on Friday. Looking at last Friday, other pockets of performance included: Zinc +0.8%, Aluminum +1.3%, Lead +0.9%, Steel +0.4%. Quantum Computing was -7.5% on Friday but +18.6% on the week.

A notable number of 52 week highs was seen in all sectors: Financials particularly Banking & Investment Services. Industrials was strong again (across the sector including Transportation... for the second time) and Technology (Software & IT Services, Technology Equipment).

Notable high volumes in all sector: High levels in Basic Materials (Metals & Mining) Consumer Cyclicals (across the sector), Financials (across the sector), Healthcare (across the sector), Industrials (across the sector) and Technology (Software & IT Services, FinTech and Technology Equipment)