Market Week: July 17, 2023
The Markets (as of market close July 14, 2023)
Wall Street enjoyed a positive week of returns, with each of the benchmark indexes posting solid gains, despite a marginal downturn at the end of last week. The financial sector began releasing quarterly updates last Friday as investors focused on the state of the banking industry. A few major banks reported increasing profits in the second quarter, while more data will be released this week. The Russell 2000, the Global Dow, and the Nasdaq gained over 3.0% last week, while the S&P 500 and the Dow advanced over 2.3%. Ten-year Treasury yields fell 24.0 basis points as investors saw hope that inflation may be subsiding and the Federal Reserve may be nearing an end to its policy of interest rate hikes. Crude oil prices climbed higher last week, despite last Friday’s drop, which was the largest decline since the end of last month. The dollar slid lower and is now down 3.4% year to date. Gold prices, on the other hand, rose higher last week and are up more than 7.0% for the year.