US Stocks to Watch: Rally Cont'd This Week?
On Fri, 03 May 2024 the mother of all jobs related report, Non farm payroll was published. (see below)
It boosted the morale of the US market, once again rekindling hope of a possible interest rate cut sooner than later.
Non-Farm Payroll (April 2024)
For April 2024, total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 175,000 jobs.
This was -26.47% lower than Wall Street estimates of 238,000.
And -44.44% lower compared to March data of 315,000 jobs.
April job numbers are the lowest since last October2023.
Comparatively speaking, its more “normal” than the elevated growth of the last 2 years.
The most “positive” about April’s data (I think) is it’s lower than the average monthly gain of 242,000 over the prior 12 months.
No wonder, it gave Wall Street ammunition to assume that interest cut is back on track again.
US market weekly performance:
The positive news on the jobs front boosted US market sentiments.
The three indexes ended “higher”, by the time market closed for the week:
DJIA: +1.03%.
S&P 500: +0.27%.
Nasdaq: +0.93%.
Unemployment Rate.
Along with the Non-Farm payroll report, US unemployment data was released at the same time. (see below)
US unemployment rate changed little at 3.9%.
Statistically, it was -0.1% higher than Wall Street estimates and March data of 3.8%.
The less jobs (non farm payroll) and higher unemployment combination is indeed a potent catalyst.
Jobs Gained vs Heat Map.
Drill down of the non-farm payroll report revealed that job gains occurred in the following sectors: (a) Healthcare, (b) Social assistance, (c) Transportation and (d) Warehousing.
Let’s compare if gains in payroll matches S&P 500 Sectors’ ETF heatmap performance for this week ? (see below)
Top 5 Sectors ETF weekly performance:
XLU - Utilities.
XLRE - Real estates.
XLK - Technology.
XLY - Consumer discretionary.
XLV - Heathcare. At least there is one match ! Ha ha ha.
Focus: Corporate Earnings?
With inflation and jobs reports out of the way, will focus returns squarely on corporate earnings again this week?
Certainly, looks like it, except that there isn’t anything that is really exciting, with most of the Mega Cap companies completed their due diligence. (see below)
Some of the corporate earnings (grouped on sectors) that I think investors might be interested. (AM = morning. PM = after mkt closed)
(1) Technology.
$Palantir Technologies Inc.(PLTR)$ . Mon, 06 May 2024. PM.
Uber Inc (UBER). Wed, 08 May 2024. AM.
Robinhood Inc (HOOD). 08 May 2024. PM.
(2) Entertainment.
$Walt Disney(DIS)$ . Tue, 07 May 2024. AM.
Warner Bros Discovery. Thu, 09 May 2024. AM.
(3) Electric Vehicle (EV).
Lucid Group (LCID). Mon, 06 May 2024. PM.
Rivian Automotive (RIVN). Tue, 07 May 2024. PM.
Nikola Corporation (NKLA), Tue, 07 May 2024. PM.
(4) Others.
$UBS Group AG(UBS)$, Tue, 07 May 2024. AM.
$Occidental(OXY)$ , Tue, 07 May 2024. PM.
Reddit (RDDT), Tue, 07 May 2024. PM.
$ARM Holdings Ltd(ARM)$, Wed, 08 May 2024. PM.
Now you know why this might be a lacklustre US Market week.
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Do you think US market will exhibit a mixed performance behaviour this week?
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I predict a nice gap UP tomorrow!
I also predict SQQQ in the low tens to upper nines tomorrow.
Hope the rally can continue
Pls help to "Re-post". Tks! Rating is important (to me).
Would you consider "Follow me" and get first hand read of my Daily new posts? Thanks!). Tks!
Great article, would you like to share it?
True💯