MARKET RECAP*
- U.S. stocks continued to exhibit positive performance, leading to the best first half for U.S. equities in four years
- The S&P 500 finished the second quarter of the year with a positive 3.1% gain
- Top Sectors: Healthcare (+7.3%), Industrials (+5.0%),
- Bottom Sectors: Telecom (-6.9%), Energy (-6.2%)
- Large Cap Growth outperformed Value in the second quarter by 3.3%
- Large Cap Growth was down 0.3% in June as Technology’s momentum faltered
- International developed countries increased 0.3% in June even as several countries hinted at increasing interest rates in the near future
- Emerging markets outperformed international developed markets in June, rising 0.9% on the month and 5.6% in the second quarter
- Long-Term Treasury yields rose slightly on the month, the 10-year Treasury yielded 2.31% at month end
- Despite this, long-term Treasury bonds rose by 0.8% last month
ECONOMIC NEWS**
- The economy created 222,000 jobs in June, the most in four months
- However, average hourly earnings continued to grow at a sluggish pace of just 0.2% over last month
- The Federal Reserve’s June statement hinted that a program to reduce their balance sheet would commence later this year. If you are interested in how the FED does this, please feel free to contact us.
