Market watches data flows as it awaits a Fed pivot

Ironic as it may seem, weak economic data has become music to the market

- Ven Sreenivasan

It has been a tense week for traders and investors as they tried to read the proverbial tea leaves to see what moves central banks would make in the wake of sticky inflation, slowing economic growth, dampened consumer sentiment and uncertain corporate earnings outlook.

Ironic as it may seem, weak economic data has become music to the market. That being the case, Wall Street managed to end the week with gains following data suggesting some easing in the tight labour market.

Initial jobless claims rose by 22,000 to a higher than expected 231,000 in the week ended May 4 the highest level since August 2023. This comes after data showed that US job growth slowed more than expected in April and annual wage gains cooled.

These numbers have reinforced the belief that the US economy could indeed be heading for a slowdown, which will hopefully prompt the Federal Reserve to pivot to monetary easing some time during the second half.

The Dow Jones Industrial Index posted its best weekly gains since December as it rose 2.16 per cent to 39,512.84 points. The S&P 500 index gained 1.85 per cent for the week to 5,222.68, while the Nasdaq was up 1.14 per cent to 16,340.87 points.

In Singapore, the Straits Times Index traded in narrow ranges on May 6 and 7, before a bout of choppy trading conditions saw the benchmark broaden its trading to a near 60-point range for the last three sessions of the week before ending at 3,290.70 points, down 0.1 per cent for the week. It was up 0.8 per cent for the week on dividend distributions.

This brings the index's total return to 4.2 per cent year to date, with the banks averaging 13.2 per cent gains, while the iEdge S-Reit Index has seen a 9.1 per cent decline in total return.

Singapore Airlines was the index's highest flier last week, gaining 3.5 per cent, followed by Mapletree Logistics Trust and Hongkong Land Holdings.