EDITOR’S NOTE: The following is an excerpt of a regular feature from Huntington Private Bank. On a regular basis, Huntington officials publish a “The Three Things We Learned This Week” blog post on its website, with commentary by Huntington‘s Chief Investment Officer, John Augustine.
- The second quarter was constructive for long-term investors. Over the last three months, the S&P 500 was higher in price by 10.57% and closed at a new record high of 6,204.95. This is impressive given the angst about the economy, Israel/Iran and the tariffs. In addition, the Bloomberg Barclays Govt/Credit Intermediate Bond Index gained 0.73% in price. This was a very constructive quarter for long-term investors that remained calm during the ‘policy driven volatility” that was evident in the month of April.
- U.S. economic reports are mixed this week, but employment seems solid. The weak economic reports this week consisted of construction and exports. However, there were three employment reports this week (Monthly Employment Report, JOLTS Job Survey, Weekly Initial Jobless Claims) that were all better than expected. In other words, employers are likely to still have difficulty finding workers where needed, while employees are still in-demand.
- Trade Talk is coming back in a positive way. So far, there have been two cabinet secretaries, Lutnick and Bessent, that have opined on the potential to extend the April 9 deadline for trade agreements with a long list of countries. In addition, there are headlines around other countries (China, EU, Japan) with trade deals as a work in progress. This helps calm markets and allows stocks to move to new closing highs. More to come on this in the upcoming weeks.
Click here to read the full article at the Huntington Private Bank website.
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