Weekly Digest 6/3/22
Happy Friday, June 3!
Hope you all had a great Week 10. Please find below our SWS-curated round-up of interesting articles, resources, information, and opportunities related to real-world finance that may be useful to you!
The Dow closed the week at 32,900 and fell 348.5 points or -.9% on the week. The S&P500 lost 68.28 points and was at 4,109 or down 1.2% on the week. The NASDAQ declined 304.16 points to 12,013.
The 10-yr Treasury yield was at 2.94% and .2% on the week. Oil is at $120.27 ($/bbl), up 4.5% on the week. Bonds are at $102.77, down about 1.3% on the week.
The unemployment rate stayed steady throughout May at 3.6% – the best rate since the pandemic. No recession in the last 50 years has begun with unemployment below 4%. There has consistently been an increase in unemployment greater than 14% over a year or more before past recessions, but given the aggressive approach from the Fed, it isn’t guaranteed the economy won’t enter another downturn. The economy added 390,000 jobs in May.
Tesla had one of the biggest declines of the week at -9.2%, continuing a period of volatility for the EV market. Elon Musk also plans to cut 10% of Tesla’s staff.
Walmart is pushing automation. By 2024, Walmart plans to open 4 new fulfillment centers in the USA relying heavily on automation. The combination of robotics, machine learning, and people will be the first of its kind for Walmart. “This could alone provide 75% of the US population with next or two-day shipping on millions of items,” according to the Senior VP of innovation and automation at Walmart.
Dave Clark, Amazon consumer CEO, is stepping down. This is the second big executive exit in Big Tech this week as Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Meta, is also stepping down.
Gasoline prices keep surging and benchmark future prices hit a new high of $4.19 per gallon. If these trends continue, we are likely to see gasoline hit an average of $5.15 per gallon across the country soon.
Have a great weekend and good luck on finals! We look forward to seeing you again in the fall.
Cheers to the summer!
SWS Investment Committee