MARKET RECAP

• The S&P 500 was up 14% in the first half of the year led by Nvdia, +149%. NVDA accounted for 30% of the return. The market managed an increase despite the expectation of multiple interest rate cuts never happening. The rally was powered by excitement about AI. Meanwhile, the equal-weighted index was only up 4.1%.
• Nike fell 20% on Friday on a disappointing outlook.
• The market cap of S&P 500 companies increased by $6 trillion in the first half of this year, the biggest gain ever for the first half of a year.
• Personal-consumption expenditures index was up 2.6% in May compared to a year earlier, the lowest reading since 2021.
• Britain goes to the polls next week, and a pre-election poll shows that 65% of Brits say that leaving the EU was the wrong decision. Something we wrote about at the time. 15% said the benefits were greater than the costs. Goldman Sachs says that the British economy is 5% smaller now than it would have been had they stayed in the EU.