The major indices ended a six-week period of stagnation for the S&P 500, with gains recorded this week. On Thursday, the S&P 500 reached a new closing high for the year at 4,199 and on Friday, it reached a new intraday high for the year at 4,212. However, the index failed to maintain a position above 4,200 on a closing basis, which has been a strong resistance level since August 2022.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 373 points, closing at 33,301. That’s a decline of 1.1%. On the other hand, the NASDAQ rose for the third consecutive week, adding 0.4%. In terms of market cap, the large cap S&P 500 saw a slight dip of 0.3%, while the mid cap S&P 400 and small cap Russell 2000 both retreated, with decreases of 1.2% and 1.1% respectively.

The stock market closed the first week of May on a positive note, but Friday’s gains were not enough to recoup the losses incurred by most of the major indices throughout the week. The S&P 500 reached its highest point since February earlier in the week, hitting 4,186 on Monday before dipping below the 4,050 level on Thursday.

U.S. Markets:  Stocks recorded mixed returns as attention focused on the season’s busiest week of quarterly earnings reports. About 35% of S&P 500 Index companies, which together represent 44% of its market capitalization, were scheduled to release results during the week. Of note, gains in just four stocks—Microsoft, Apple, Amazon.com, and Facebook parent Meta Platforms—accounted for nearly half of the S&P 500’s strong gain. Technology led the way with the Nasdaq Composite rising 1.3% finishing the week at 12,227. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.9% and closed at 34,089.  By market cap, the large cap S&P 500 gained 0.9%, while the mid cap S&P 400 and small cap Russell 2000 pulled back -0.3% and -1.3% respectively. For the month of April, the Dow rose 2.5% and the Nasdaq ended flat. Large caps added 1.5%, while mid caps fell -0.9%. Small caps ended the month down -1.9%.

The stock market saw little movement this week, with the S&P 500 closing at 4,137 last Friday and closing at 4,133 this Friday. The major indices mostly moved sideways, showing little volatility in daily price action. Investors were waiting for a big batch of earnings results next week, which will feature reports from some mega cap stocks, including Microsoft (MSFT), Amazon.com (AMZN), Alphabet (GOOG), and Meta Platforms (META). These reports will follow disappointing Q1 results from Tesla (TSLA), which plunged nearly 10.0% on Thursday.

The stock market experienced a decline for most of the week, with only the Dow Jones registering a slim gain due to money flowing into blue chip names. The other major indices registered losses due to renewed growth concerns. The surprise production cut announcement of 1.16 million barrels per day by OPEC+ in May, which will continue through the end of the year, sent oil prices soaring by 6.4% to $80.70/bbl. After the market digested this move, growth concerns rose to the forefront and influenced the price action for the remainder of the week.

Last week was a good week for the stock market as the S&P 500 continued to climb, reaching above the 4,100 level by the end of the week. The financial sector also saw an uptick of 3.7%, though it declined 6.1% over the first quarter of the year. The rally was fueled in part by strong leadership from semiconductor stocks, which rose 3.5% last week and surged 27.6% over the first quarter.

Stock market volatility continued last week. Overall, it started out pretty strong and ended on a firm note, but there were some ups and downs in between as investors weighed ongoing concerns about the bank industry and the latest policy moves from the Fed.

U.S. Markets: The major U.S. indexes finished the week mixed reflecting the stresses in the banking sector, worries over an impending recession, and hopes that the Federal Reserve would now be forced to moderate or pause its rate-hiking cycle. The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended the week down just 48 points to 31,862—a decline of -0.1%. The technology-heavy NASDAQ Composite retraced most of last week’s decline by rallying 4.4% to close at 11,631. By market cap, the large cap S&P 500 rose 1.4%, while the mid cap S&P 400 pulled back -3.2% and the small cap Russell 2000 finished the week down -2.6%.