As the calendar rolls over to the new month, the summer doldrums are officially here. Although the markets were just closed for the Memorial Day holiday, it’s like they should have been closed all week. Trading volumes were light despite a decent amount of economic data being released.
That data—which included consumer, manufacturing, employment/jobs and natural resources-related metrics—actually came in better than many expected.
As was the relatively small number of stocks still reporting earnings.
What did seem to drive the light returns for the market was the continued specter of the Federal Reserve. With data being better than many investors thought, the potential for a rate hike this month continues to grow. What few investors were around this week continued to grapple with whether or not that’s a good thing for stocks.
All in all, May ended higher and June is looking like it will as well.
