From a market perspective it has been a dynamic headline driven week bookended by rallies that were driven by hopes for a diplomatic resolution in the Middle East and the rise of agentic AI with the adoption of Meta’s Muse platform and the revamp of Microsoft’s Copilot. However, in the middle of the week the focus shifted to rising global yields following better than expected S&P Global flash PMIs and a couple of weak Treasury auctions.

It was another week where breadth in the market continued to detoriorate. The tech strength helped the S&P 500 end the week up ~1% while the equal-weight version of the index and small and midcap indices moved slightly lower. The sector level activity in the S&P 500 was mixed for the week. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that tech and communication services were the two best performing sectors up >2%. Energy, yield-oriented sectors and financials were down between 1.5% - 3.5%. There was broad-based weakness across financials with insurance, alternative investment managers, exchanges and wealth management exposed companies some of the worst performing.

Looking to next week, the MLB playoffs will arrive, with the Yankees and Red Sox squaring off in another Fall showdown. The puck will also drop on the NHL regular season. Market-wise, Monthly payrolls, PCE, final GDP and ISM Manufacturing PMI will headline. Home Prices, JOLTS, Personal Income / Spending, and Construction Spending will also be on the calendar. We'll get more Fed Speak as well. In corporate events, OpenAI's Dev Day will be closely watched, and there will be several earnings reports, including JEF, CCL, FDS, MU, ACN, MKC and NKE. Enjoy the weekend. Stay Dry. Go Yanks. Go Isles.