Mag7 vs European Turmoil

Last week, Mag7 stocks increased by 4.8% with five consecutive ATHs (all-time-high at closing prices)! In other words, we could celebrate another ATH every day. The three largest companies performed best: Microsoft +4.42%; Apple +7.92% and Nvidia +9.09%.

The S&P500 increased by only 1.58% during the week. Small US companies (Russell 2000) fell by 1.00% and are in negative territory since the beginning of the year.

At the other end of the spectrum we have European shares, where CAC40 fell 6.23% last week and Euro Stoxx 50 fell 4.20%. See Figure 1 and Table 1.

Snap elections in France are taking their toll on capital markets. The voting will be made in two rounds: the first round on June 30 and the second one on July 7. Interestingly, on July 5 (Friday), we will also get the US labor market report for June - which may potentially have a strong impact on the markets. See Figure 2.

Higher risk in Europe is also visible in other asset classes. Figure 3 shows 10-year Treasury yields for the US, Germany, France and Italy. Spreads between the yields of German and French and Italian bonds increased sharply last week - see Figure 4.

Unfortunately, we have 3 weeks of increased investment risk ahead of us, which will probably have the least impact on US assets.