US stocks traded higher, starting a holiday-shortened week, As investors wait for more economic data, as well as comments from several Federal Reserve officials, looking for clues about future monetary policy.
In this context, the Dow Jones Industrial Index ended at 38,778.10 points, rising 0.49%, the S&P 500 stood at 5,473.23 points, gaining 0.77% and the Nasdaq Composite appreciated 0.95 % reaching 17,857.02 points.
The markets will be closed on Wednesday the 19th for the Juneteenth holiday.which commemorates the abolition of slavery in the US and are coming off a mixed week, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average registering its third weekly losing period in four, while the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq registered their seventh bullish week in recent eight, driven by new increases in technology companies.
Caution over Federal Reserve measures
The discrepancy in the results of the major indexes is an indication of uncertainty about where stock markets will go, which is largely based on investors being unsure when the Federal Reserve will begin its rate cutting cycle.
The main economic release this week will be Tuesday’s May Retail Sales, as investors try to keep an eye on the strength of the US economy and therefore the likely timing of Fed rate cuts.
Economists expect retail sales to have increased 0.3% month-on-month, after the figure was 0.0% in April.
The voice of Fed officials
Several Fed officials will speak this week, including New York Fed President John Williams, Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari, San Francisco Fed President Mary Daly , and Richmond Federal Reserve President Thomas Barkin.
Kashkari said Sunday, in an interview on CBS, that it is a “reasonable prediction that the US central bank will cut interest rates once this year, waiting until December to do so”.
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In the stock sector Apple breaks record again, as it surpassed Microsoft and Nvidia this Monday at half-time and became the company with the highest value on the market, reaching a market capitalization of $3.32 trillion a week after announcing its first artificial intelligence (AI).
The podium of the large listed companies is monopolized, for now, by five American technology companies: Apple (3.32 billion), Microsoft (3.29), Nvidia (3.2), Alphabet (2.2) and Amazon (1. 9).
The size of Apple’s stock market capitalization is already equivalent to the seventh largest economy in the world (France with a nominal GDP of USD 3.05 trillion), although the figures are very volatile and positions can vary at any time. So far this year, its shares are up 12%.
Activist investor targets Autodesk
Elsewhere, Autodesk rose 3.4% after the Wall Street Journal reported that activist investor Starboard Value has taken a stake worth about $500 million in the design software maker and is now advocating for changes.
Shares of video game retailer and meme favorite GameStop were down 12% ahead of its annual shareholder meeting.
On the other hand. Shares of AMC Networks fell more than 11% after the entertainment company announced a $125 million convertible offering.
Adobe in trouble
The U.S. government sued Adobe on Monday, accusing the Photoshop and Acrobat maker of harming consumers by hiding high cancellation fees in its most popular subscription plan and making it difficult to cancel subscriptions.
In a lawsuit filed in federal court in San Jose, California, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) said that Adobe hides fees in fine print, sometimes reaching hundreds of dollarsand other important terms of your “annual paid monthly” subscription plan, or behind text boxes and hyperlinks.
In the corporate sector, companies such as Lennar, Kroger, Darden Restaurants and CarMax will release their quarterly results this week.
