Nasdaq was the week's biggest winner among the US majors equity indices in a week that saw the S&P 500 Index, Dow Jones Industrial Average, and Nasdaq Composite all continue to hit record highs, while the Russell 2000 Index declined after back-to-back weeks of outperformance versus its larger-cap peers. The Russell 1000 growth index outperformed Russell 1000 value by 553bps, the largest margin since March 2023. Sector performance was also widely dispersed as consumer discretionary, communication services, and IT stocks all gained over 3% for the week, while energy, utilities, and materials stocks all fell over 3%. Geopolitical headlines through the first half of the week were largely dominated by French and South Korean politics, though these seemed to have limited impact on U.S. markets. On the macro side, the U.S. added 227,000 jobs in November, which was slightly higher than consensus estimates and a sharp rebound from October’s disappointing data. The report also noted that unemployment in November increased a tick to 4.2%. US Treasury bond yields fell after the report as the curve is pricing in a 90% chance of a Fed rate cut in December. The pan-European STOXX Europe 600 Index ended 2.00% higher. In France, Prime Minister Michel Barnier’s minority government collapsed after Parliament backed a no-confidence motion. German 10-year bunds and French 10-year OATS widened at one point to 90bps. Bitcoin crossed $100k for the 1st time ever. Ether is back to $4000.
Have a great week-end
Charles for the team