The S&P 500 closed at an all-time high this week, and weekly jobless claims jumped up above 1 million again after several weeks of a downward trend. The U.S. Postal Service was in the spotlight as concerns were raised around the Postal Service’s ability to handle what is expected to be a significant increase in mail-in ballots come November.

Weekly Returns

S&P 500: 3397.2 (0.7%)
FTSE All-World ex-US (VEU): (-0.3%)
US 10 Year Treasury Yield: 0.58% (-9.86%)
Gold: $1,901.49 (-0.3%)
EUR/USD: 1.165 (-0.4%)

Major Events

• Monday – The Wall Street Journal reports that the Coronavirus is taking a high toll on working parents, who are finding an elevated need for childcare in the face of stay at home schooling & work.
• Monday – The Trump administration opened the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for Oil drilling – for the first time since 1980 when Congress designated the area protected.
• Tuesday – The S&P 500 hit a record high, after a sudden and unprecedented decline in the months of March & April.
• Wednesday – Federal Reserve minutes were released, indicating that the Fed remains concerned about the impact of the Coronavirus, and that rates are expected to stay low in the near term as a result.
• Wednesday – Apple’s stock price trades above $467.77, making the company worth more than $2 trillion dollars, a first for any US company.
• Thursday – U.S. Department of Labor reports a spike in new unemployment claims, which had been declining over past weeks.
• Thursday – The state of California ‘blinked’ on Thursday as an appeals court paused the court order to reclassify Uber/Lyft’s drivers as employees. Both Uber & Lyft had planned to cease all California operations Friday in response to the original court order.
• Friday – Actress Lori Laughlin received a 2-month prison sentence for her actions in a college admissions scandal.

Our Take: Is Big Tech Pricing Rational?