Week Ending May 13 Financial Markets Update

The S&P 500 Index declined nearly 2.5% for the week although a strong Friday session helped mitigate the pain. Growth stocks continued to pull the market down as inflation and the Fed’s anticipated response are at the top of investor’s minds. Growth has underperformed value by over 17% year to date in one of the greatest selloffs in high-valuation stocks since the Dot-Com Crisis. The tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 Index came close to eclipsing its maximum drawdown experienced during the Covid-19 pandemic on Thursday. Compared to the current selloff, growth stocks have only experienced equivalent drawdowns three times in the previous three decades; the Dot Com Bubble, the Global Financial Crisis of 2008, and the Covid-19 pandemic. The most significant economic report of the week was the April CPI number which surprised to the upside but showed a slight decrease in inflation from the previous month.