The Week in Review

Uncertainty ruled the week right up until Thursday’s referendum in the United Kingdom (U.K.) got underway. After the results were announced early Friday morning, market uncertainty grew even more pronounced as the true impact of the U.K.’s surprising decision to leave the European Union (E.U.) began to take hold.

Uncertainty continued to rule international markets this week as further polling showed an increasing chance that the citizens of the United Kingdom (UK) might vote to leave the European Union (EU) next week.

The U.S. stock market just could not seem to maintain its momentum this week despite growing evidence that the U.S. Federal Reserve is likely backed into a corner and will be forced to continue to prop up stocks with near zero interest rates for a while longer. Precious metals benefitted from the growing lack of confidence in the world’s central banks ability to properly handle and coordinate their monetary policies.

Markets eagerly awaited the release of the May Non-Farm Payrolls (NFP) report on Friday as media pundits continued to parse and over-analyze every word uttered by anyone remotely connected to the U.S. Federal Reserve. When the report was finally released, the data was a massive disappointment.

With the media pounding the table for a rate hike in June and Federal Reserve Officials making public statements that seem to be leaning in that direction sooner, rather than later, all eyes will now turn to the Non-Farm Payrolls report for May which is due out next Friday. Next week’s shortened trading week due to the upcoming Memorial Day holiday may also mean that market volatility is muted, ahead of the release of the jobs report.

The U.S. Federal Reserve is once again in control of markets as their public statements and posturing once again led analysts and media pundits alike to begin speculating anew that an interest rate hike is on the table for June.

Earnings results, particularly in the retail sector, seemed to provide constant disappointment to stock markets this week. It appears that retail sales in the U.S. are going to be weak again in the second quarter as the U.S. consumer continues to hold on to their wallets more tightly than economists expected.

Disappointing economic data this week, particularly in the U.S. employment sector, appeared to be the primary driver for market moves as the likelihood of another interest rate hike slips farther and farther away.

Central banks seemed to be the primary driving force for market movements this week as both the Federal Reserve and the Bank of Japan concluded their monetary policy meetings by taking no action this week.

It was another volatile week for stocks as global economic data continued to show signs of persistent weakness and a spate of poor earnings data were released in the United States.