This Weekly Financial Market Update reviews the top market headlines: Dow Hits Longest Losing Streak Since 1932, Turbulent Week for Retail Stocks, U.S. Home Sales Slow
  • The Dow Jones Industrial Average has fallen 13.3% in 2022, while the S&P 500 has fallen 17.7%
  • The S&P Retail Select Industry index fell 9.6% last week
  • Existing home sales fell 2.4% in April, the third straight monthly decline

Top Three Market Headlines

Dow Hits Longest Losing Streak Since 1932: The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell last week for the eighth straight week, matching its longest streak of weekly losses since 1932. On the week, the Dow lost 2.9%, bringing its year-to-date loss to 13.3%. 23 of the 30 stocks comprising the index have declined in 2022. The broader-market S&P 500 index has fallen for seven straight weeks, but its year-to-date loss has been greater, at 17.7%. In fact, the S&P briefly touched bear market territory (a 20% drop from its most recent high) intraday on Friday. The worst-performing widely-followed index, however, has been the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite index, which showed a 27% year-to-date loss through last Friday.

Turbulent Week for Retail Stocks: The S&P Retail Select Industry index endured a 9.6% decline last week, its worst week in more than a year. Retail stocks of all sorts saw sharp losses after disappointing earnings reports from bellwether retailers Walmart and Target, both of which flagged higher transportation costs and consumers purchasing fewer discretionary items amid higher inflation. The pressure on retail stocks came despite the U.S. Census Bureau reporting earlier in the week that sales at retail and food service establishments rose a seasonally adjusted 0.9% in April from the prior month, the fourth straight monthly increase. However, after excluding the effects of price increases, the amount of real, or inflation-adjusted, retail sales was likely much more subdued over this period.

U.S. Home Sales Slow: Amid record home prices and rising mortgage rates, home sales activity declined for the third straight month in April. The National Association of Realtors reported that sales of existing homes fell 2.4% to a seasonally-adjusted annual rate of 5.61 million, the lowest level since June of 2020. The median sales price in the U.S. in April was $391,200, up 14.8% over the prior year and the 122nd straight month of annual increases. With slowing sales activity, housing inventory has begun to slowly increase, with unsold inventory representing 2.2 months of sales in April, up from 1.9 months in March

As of May 23, 2022 Week Quarter-To-Date Year-To-Date One-Year
MSCI All Country World -1.10% -12.32% -17.02% -9.94%
S&P 500 -3.00% -13.70% -17.67% -4.86%
Russell 2000 -1.05% -14.21% -20.67% -18.79%
MSCI EAFE 1.50% -9.05% -14.43% -12.45%
MSCI Emerging Markets 3.13% -9.05% -15.39% -20.33%
FTSE NAREIT -3.04% -14.23% -17.54% 1.29%
Bloomberg Commodity 1.76% 5.05% 31.89% 43.95%
Barclays U.S. Aggregate 0.59% -3.45% -9.18% -8.11%

WSJ 5/17/22, 5/19/22, US Census Bureau 5/17/2022. Marketwatch 5/19/2022, Barron’s 5/21/22, National Association of Realtors 5/19/22. Data from Morningstar Direct. Returns for periods greater than one year are annualized. Gallagher Fiduciary Advisors, LLC (“GFA”) is an SEC Registered Investment Adviser that provides retirement, investment advisory, discretionary/named and independent fiduciary services. GFA is a limited liability company with Gallagher Benefit Services, Inc. as its single member. GFA may pay referral fees or other remuneration to employees of AJG or its affiliates or to independent contractors; such payments do not change our fee. Securities may be offered through Triad Advisors, LLC (“Triad”), member FINRA/SIPC. Triad is separately owned and other entities and/or marketing names, products or services referenced here are independent of Triad. Neither Triad, Arthur J. Gallagher & Co., GFA, their affiliates nor representatives provide accounting, legal or tax advice.