1 Stock to Buy, 1 Stock to Sell This Week: JPMorgan Chase, Levi Strauss
Stocks on Wall Street rallied on Friday to wrap up an action-packed week, month, and quarter as signs of cooling inflation boosted hopes the Federal Reserve is approaching the end of its rate-hiking cycle.
For the week, the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 2%, the benchmark S&P 500 climbed 2.3%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite advanced 2.2%.
U.S. stocks also posted strong gains for the month of June. The Dow tacked on 4.6%, the S&P jumped 6.5% for its biggest monthly gain since October, while the Nasdaq rallied 6.6%.
Meanwhile, for the second quarter: the Dow rose 3.4% for a third winning quarter, the S&P 500 added 8.3% for its biggest quarterly advance since Q4 2021, while the Nasdaq surged 12.8%.
Finally, for the first half of 2023, the Nasdaq soared 31.7%, its best six-month start to a year since 1983, while the S&P 500 popped 15.9% for its best first half since 2019. The 30-stock Dow is up a modest 3.8%.
The holiday-shortened week ahead — which will see U.S. stock markets close early at 1:00PM ET on Monday and remain shut on Tuesday for the Fourth of July Independence Day holiday — will likely be another eventful one.
On the economic calendar, most important will be Friday’s U.S. jobs report. As per Investing.com, nonfarm payrolls are forecast to rise by 200,000 in June, while the unemployment rate is seen holding steady at 3.7%.
Meanwhile, the Institute for Supply Management's (ISM) manufacturing survey index is scheduled for Monday, followed by the ISM service-sector PMI on Thursday.
Elsewhere, the release of the Fed minutes on Wednesday will also be watched closely for any clues on the outlook for monetary policy ahead of the July FOMC meeting.
Currently, financial markets are pricing in an 86.8%
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