A roundup of Thursday¡s stock market results from across the Americas
🌎 Argentina’s Merval leads LatAm gains:
In Latin America, the stock markets maintained a performance similar to that of Wall Street: most closed with gains, with the exception of Mexico’s S&P/BMV IPC (MEXBOL), which fell 0.02% during the day.
The markets that led the day’s good performance were Argentina’s Merval (MERVAL) and Brazil’s Ibovespa (IBOV), up 3.30% and 2.06%, respectively. They were followed by the Colombian stock exchanges (Colcap) and the S&P general index of the Lima Stock Exchange of Peru (SPBLPGPT), gaining 1.72% and 1.49% each by the close of the session.
Chile’s IPSA index (IPSA) rose 0.90%, despite a 0.82% drop in the industrial sector.
Chile’s President Gabriel Goric said Thursday he will insist on returning to the discussion of his tax reform that was rejected by Congress, with a new proposal slated for July.
Argentina’s Merval’s gains were driven by Telecom Argentina shares, which rose 6.76%; followed by shares of Banco Macro , which rose 5.01%.
Brazil’s Ibovespa was boosted by the shares of Locaweb Servicios de Internet (LWSA3), which climbed 11.88%, and the shares of Totvs S.A. (TOTS3), which gained 4.62%.
🗽On Wall Street:
A renewed rally in tech giants extended this year’s surge in the S&P 500 to almost 10% ahead of Friday’s jobs report amid bets the Federal Reserve will pause its interest-rate hikes in June.
After a brief respite in the colossal advance of big tech fueled by the artificial-intelligence frenzy, the cohort is back in full force. Nvidia Corp. climbed over 5%, leading gains in the Nasdaq 100. Aside from the obsession for anything AI-related that drove megacaps up 17% in May, the industry also got a boost amid a slide in bond yields and better-than-estimated sales at Dell Technologies Inc.
After the closing bell, Broadcom Inc., one of the world’s biggest chipmakers, said that demand for gear that powers AI is helping fuel sales, but not enough to offset a broader post-pandemic slowdown.
“One can rightly ask how many more ‘Mays’ we can have, where US big tech is almost the only place to find outsized positive equity returns anywhere in the world,” said Nicholas Colas, co-founder of DataTrek Research. “The old Keynesian saying that goes, ‘markets can remain irrational longer than you can stay solvent’ feels especially relevant in the current investment environment.”
The S&P 500 rose 1% on Thursday, reclaiming its 4,200 mark. A contrarian indicator from Bank of America Corp. that tracks Wall Street strategists’ average recommended allocation to stocks is the closest it has been to notching a “buy” signal in over six years.
‘Extremely nimble’
To Matt Maley at Miller Tabak, no matter how bullish investors might be about the potential for AI, they should be prepared to weather corrections along the way.
“Investors will need to be quite careful, and extremely nimble, after these recent parabolic advances,” Maley said. “Sometimes, the deep corrections are long-lasting, like we saw after the dot-com bubble burst. Sometimes, they only last for a few weeks and are followed by new, very strong rallies that take the stocks even higher.”
The tech rebound also pushed C3.ai Inc. off its session lows, with the AI software firm paring a plunge of 24% by almost half.
A long-time Tesla Inc. bull poured water on investors’ hopes that the electric-vehicle maker’s shares can get a sizable lift from the AI hype. While it is “tempting to speak in platitudes about Tesla’s AI chops,” the stock’s direction will be dominated by the supply and demand of electric cars over the next 12 months, said Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas.
Jobs, Fedspeak
Aside from the AI theme, traders also geared up for the monthly jobs report on Friday, with forecasters projecting a moderation in the pace of hiring that could potentially allow the Fed to pause its tightening policy in June.
Fed Bank of Philadelphia President Patrick Harker said “we should at least skip this meeting in terms of an increase. In an essay Thursday, his St. Louis counterpart James Bullard, said he believes interest rates are at the low end of what’s likely to be sufficiently restrictive to bring down inflation.
Meantime, the Treasury is considering postponing its regular three- and six-month bill auctions “tentatively” scheduled for next Monday if constraints around the statutory debt limit remain.
Senators scrambled Thursday to agree on a plan for swift consideration of the debt-limit deal forged by President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy ahead of a June 5 deadline to avert a destabilizing default.
The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index fell 0.6%, the euro rose 0.7% to $1.0762, the British pound rose 0.7% to $1.2530 and the Japanese yen rose 0.4% to 138.82 per dollar.
🍝 For the dinner table debate:
The Latino community has been quite important in the United States for decades. But recent data show that, in addition to their strong presence in the country, Latinos currently constitute the youngest population in the US, according to data from the US Census Bureau.
The average age of the Hispanic or Latino is 30, which compares to the non-Hispanic population that had an average age of 41.1 years old at the time of the census.
In addition to having the youngest population, one in four children living in the United States are Latino; while the median age of Hispanics is eight years younger than the median age of Americans (38.8 years).
According to US Census Bureau data, the multiracial population was the youngest group in the U.S. in 2020, with 32.5% of its population under the age of 18.
Between 2010 and 2020, the multiracial population increased for each age category (under 18, 18 to 44, 45 to 65, and 65 and older) by more than 164%.
Paola Villar S., a content producer at Bloomberg Línea, and Rita Nazareth of Bloomberg News, contributed to this story.
