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- Stocks were mostly negative last week. We saw global markets (represented by the MSCI All Country World Index) down -0.4% and domestic stocks (represented by the S&P 500 Index) down -0.4%. U.S. small companies (represented by the Russell 2000 Index) led the way up with 0.8%.
- Below are figures for the month of July and year-to-date through the end of the month:
| *as of 7/31/2021 | July | YTD |
| MSCI All Country World Index (Global Stocks) | 0.7% | 13.1% |
| S&P 500 Index (U.S. Large Companies) | 2.4% | 18.0% |
| Russell 2000 Index (U.S. Small Companies) | -3.6% | 13.3% |
| MSCI EAFE (International Developed Stocks) | 0.8% | 9.7% |
| MSCI Emerging Markets (International Emerging Stocks) | -6.7% | 0.2% |
| Barclays U.S. Aggregate Bond Index | 1.1% | -0.5% |
| Barclays Municipal Bond Index | 0.8% | 1.9% |
- The first estimate of Q2 GDP came through last week and showed a 6.5% annualized rate. While it sounds like a fast pace of growth, it’s very similar to Q1’s growth and under the expectations from most analysts, which were around 8%.
- As we’ve heard repeatedly, Fed Chair Jerome Powell reiterated their stance that they’re nowhere close to considering raising interest rates.
- The Chinese government caused some volatility last week when they decided to increase regulatory scrutiny over their largest technology companies, along with changing the status of many after school tutoring companies. The regulatory actions are designed to promote better cybersecurity and more competitive practices. This is something we’re keeping our eyes on domestically as well, where both political parties have spoken about reigning in our biggest tech firms.
- This Friday, we’ll get a report on July unemployment figures from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
- I’d like to leave you with the final line we’ve used since we started these commentaries back at the very height of market volatility in March 2020. Always remember that we create financial/investment plans not for the easy times, but to prepare for the tough ones.
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