{"id":31260,"date":"2022-05-31T23:38:43","date_gmt":"2022-05-31T23:38:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/a-late-may-rally-in-stocks-isnt-cause-for-investor-celebration-just-yet\/"},"modified":"2022-05-31T23:38:43","modified_gmt":"2022-05-31T23:38:43","slug":"a-late-may-rally-in-stocks-isnt-cause-for-investor-celebration-just-yet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/a-late-may-rally-in-stocks-isnt-cause-for-investor-celebration-just-yet\/","title":{"rendered":"A late-May rally in stocks isn’t cause for investor celebration just yet"},"content":{"rendered":"
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If you managed to sleep through May or simply avoided your brokerage app, congratulations.<\/p>\n

You might be sitting on some gains despite the major averages punishing investors with gut-wrenching drops of up to 10% at the month’s lows.<\/p>\n

When the dust settled, the S&P 500 (^ GSPC) finished fractionally higher while the Dow (^ DJI) fell just 87 points. The Nasdaq Composite (^ IXIC) lost just over 1.7% in May.<\/p>\n

A six-day rally to close the month of May stemmed the hemorrhaging, but reality still smarts. The Nasdaq Composite just posted its fourth monthly loss of the year – something it hasn’t done since 2002.<\/p>\n

That index – along with the S&P 500 consumer discretionary (^ SP500-25) and communication services sectors (^ SP500-50) – are all still down more than 20% in 2022.<\/p>\n

Energy stocks were again the standout in May, minting another 16% for the Energy Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLE). XLE is now up an eye-watering 57% this year thanks to the efforts of Warren Buffett-owned Chevron (CVX) and Occidental Petroleum (OXY) – among many others.<\/p>\n

On the retail front, consumer staples stocks are getting hammered just like their discretionary cousins, with these sectors down 4.1% and 5.1%, respectively, this month.<\/p>\n

Those Walmart (WMT) and Target (TGT) earnings that led to their biggest drubbing since the 1987 crash? Those losses stung, with Walmart settled down 16% for the month of May, and Target off 29%. And some smaller names in the sector fared worse, with Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF) shedding 41% and Bed Bath & Beyond (BBBY) plummeting 37%.<\/p>\n

One bright spot in May was the semiconductor industry.<\/p>\n

These stocks largely avoided the pounding that most of the market took, and used the latest rally to claw back early-month losses and then some.<\/p>\n

Most of the chip names (yellow, below) closed in the green for May, though they’re all sitting on losses – some substantial – for the year.<\/p>\n

Nvidia (NVDA) is the worst off in the basket – down 37% year-to-date. Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) gained 19% in May but is still down 29% in 2022. Fabricators and analog integrated circuit-makers are the least worst-off this year – Texas Instruments (TXN), Analog Devices (ADI), and GlobalFoundries (GFS) are all down less than 10% in 2022.<\/p>\n