Job openings show surprise increase in April (2 min read)
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Job openings in the US reached their highest level since January, according to the latest Job Opening and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) report. The data suggests a resilient labor market and increases the likelihood of another interest rate hike by the Fed in June. The report revealed 10.1 million job openings in April, exceeding economists' expectations. Market pricing for a rate hike in June rose after the report's release, with a 71% chance of a hike being priced in.

Some Things We’ve Learned This Year (4 min read)
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This article highlighted several things we saw in the markets this year that contradict common beliefs. Tech stocks are currently the top performers despite interest rates at record highs. Many thought the US market was already in a recession last year and the Fed raising rates would do more harm, and yet the economy stayed resilient with consumer spending climbing even higher. The banking crisis or the US debt ceiling caused panics in the market but they generally work out most of the time. More on each of the market thoughts are available in the article.

5 trillion-dollar companies behind most of the S&P 500's gains this year (4 min read)
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The S&P 500 index has experienced significant gains this year, increasing by almost 10%. However, these gains were largely attributed to the exceptional performance of just five companies: Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, and Nvidia. These companies have collectively raised their market cap by approximately $2.9 trillion in 2023, accounting for 96% of the overall gains in the S&P 500's market value. This means the rest of the 495 companies only contributed to just 4% of the gains, which raised concerns about concentration risk in the index.

Meet ‘IndexGPT,’ the A.I. stock picker JPMorgan is developing that may put your ‘financial advisor out of business’ (3 min read)
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JPMorgan Chase has filed a trademark application for "IndexGPT," an AI software service aimed at assisting investors in selecting financial securities and assets. The application is likely to do more than just advise investors, it could potentially be used for marketing and clerical tasks as well. Other major banks like Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs have also reported recently that they are exploring the use of AI tools to help support wealth managers in analyzing data and serving clients more effectively. 

Fixed Income Investing With the Fed on Hold (Video)
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The market was mostly anticipating a rate hike pause in June a week ago, but recent economic data shows US inflation remained sticky and that may lead to the Fed raising rates a bit higher. This raises questions for many fixed-income investors such as if they should sit back and collect the 5% on T-bills or will the Fed cut rates this year? This video from etf.com is a 5-minute conversation with the head of fixed income ETF portfolio at VanEck where he discusses the outlook for fixed income and answers some of those questions.

Qraft Debuts AI ETF to Time Markets (2 min read)
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AI-based ETF provider Qraft launched its fourth ETF, the QRAFT AI-Pilot U.S. Large Cap Dynamic Beta and Income ETF (AIBD), which uses AI to help investors time market movements better. AIBD reallocates between US large cap ETFs and short-term bond ETFs based on predicted market downturn risk using Qraft's machine learning algorithm. Currently, the fund is 99.9% allocated to the iShares Core S&P 500 ETF (IVV). Qraft believes that AIBD’s longer track record than most AI funds will help it stand out in this category.

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Thanks,
Thomas

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