The Week That Was on Wall St. – May 26th – 29th

I hope you are all well and have had a green week. This week marked the last trading week in May. Yes! We are officially 5 months into 2020. Whether you had a good month or not, there is an old saying on Wall Street that some of you may have heard before, “Sell in May and go away.” I know many of you want to know if there is any truth to this. Well, the S&P returns for May of 2017, 2018, and 2019 were +8.0%, +2.4% and +3.1%, respectively. Despite the market sell-off this Thursday, we again had a positive May with almost all sectors finishing in the GREEN!

From 1965 to 1984, we were down about 15 out of 20 Mays, making investors and traders cautious about the month of May. My personal opinion about May is the same as every other month: simply do your best to “keep it green”.

Let’s recap the week together:

The stock market was closed on Monday because of the Memorial Day weekend but that did not stop futures from rallying up 1.6%. With the worst of the economic data behind us in April, the hope for a vaccine by the end of 2020 or early 2021 ahead of us, and a quick V-shaped recovery, futures were up, and it seemed like the bulls were back in control.

The party continued on Tuesday as the Consumer Confidence Index rose from 85.7 in April to 86.6 in May, suggesting the economy is faring better than expected.

Wednesday was all about Twitter and President Trump. The President threatened social media platforms with new regulations if they continued their censorship. This tweet was enough to break Twitter Inc.’s (ticker: TWTR) 8-day winning streak and send the stock in a downward trend. The stock is down over 10% since the tweet.

Thursday and Friday mostly revolved around continued tensions between the U.S. and China. Thursday was the first red day of the week after President Trump announced he would be holding a “China Press Conference” on Friday.

The market recovered most of its losses on Friday after President Trump’s news conference turned out to be not as disruptive toward trade and finance as had been previously feared.

All sectors finished green for the last week of May, with utilities and real estate leading the way. Despite all of this good news, there is still $4 trillion waiting in the wings should there be a second wave of COVID-19 or a very slow economic recovery.

I would like to end this week’s market roundup with a quote from Jim Cramer’s 2005 best-selling book, Jim Cramer’s Real Money: Sane Investing in an Insane World. He warns people from holding on to their losing positions: “… stocks aren’t like parents when you get lost at the mall; they don’t always come back.” So, if you are hanging on to a losing position, let this be a message to reevaluate that position.

I hope you all had an amazing May and I look forward to us all sharing in a green June together!

Andrew