Market Wrap – US Confidence Slips

Technology stocks continue to capture the markets attention as some of the big caps inside the Nasdaq continued to rally over optimism driven by A.I tech.

Notably, other indices failed to keep up with the gain of tech names and the VIX inches lower despite the US returning from holiday to celebrate the Debt Ceiling news.

The US dollar lost ground on the day marginally due to the improved risk on trading sentiment and the price of gold continued to hover around correction territory.

US data this afternoon also showed that U.S. consumer confidence slipped in May as concerns about the economic outlook lingered, but more households planned to purchase motor vehicles and other big-ticket items over the next six months, which could support consumer spending.

The Conference Board said its consumer confidence index slipped to 102.3 this month from an upwardly revised 103.7 in April. Economists polled by Reuters had expected the index to fall to 99 from the previously reported reading of 101.3.

The Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas’ general business activity index for manufacturing in Texas sank by 5.7 points from the previous month to -29.1 in May of 2023, the lowest since the pandemic-induced crash in the second quarter of 2020.

Also, the production index swung to the negative territory, while new order levels extended their poor momentum to the twelfth consecutive month of contraction (-16.1 vs -9.6) and the growth rate of new orders sank at a faster pace.

On the other hand, the employment gauge added some relief (9.6 vs 8). Looking ahead, expectations for the growth rate of orders sank (-2 vs 3.9), while the optimism on new order levels slowed (3.7 vs 7.7).