- U.S. equities had another challenging week despite the rally last Friday. The S&P 500 Index finished the period off another 2.4%, bringing the year-to-date decline to over 15%. This was the benchmark’s sixth consecutive weekly decline.
- Selling reflected increasing skepticism at the Federal Reserve’s (Fed) ability to execute a soft landing whereby they can tame inflation while not stifling growth.
- The Cboe Volatility Index (VIX) remained elevated and didn’t reach its recent high from earlier in May.
- Within the S&P 500 Index, more defensive portions of the market, such as consumer staples and healthcare, were relative outperformers. Cyclical and higher growth areas of the market generally lagged.
- Nearly all segments of the market fell but growth shares lagged value stocks (except in small-caps) and small-caps underperformed large-caps (except in growth).
