Pre-Market Pulse 1st August – S&P500 Notches up 5th Consecutive Month of Gains

Overnight Equities – S&P500 Notches up 5^th Consecutive Month of Gains

Equities closed higher Monday to wrap up a second-straight positive month for July after shrugging off a dip in health care as energy stocks racked up gains. Energy stocks were led higher by a more than 3% surge in Chevron after the oil major was upgraded by Goldman Sachs, citing potential for strong growth. Energy stocks were also led higher by climbing oil prices to multi-month highs on bets of tightening global supply and rising demand. Johnson & Johnson fell 4% after the judge on Friday rejected the company’s plan to place its subsidiary LTL Management into bankruptcy, known as a Texas two-step strategy, to deal with tens of thousands of legal claims alleging its talc caused cancer. DexCom was also a drag on health care, falling 6% giving up its recent gains despite raising its annual revenue forecast last week. Oil and gold rallied despite a rallying USD as investors continued to call the end of the Fed hiking cycle with only 19% of economists polled calling for a rate hike in September. The big test of this theory will be US employment numbers on Friday and the stock markets continued resilience which could lead to more hikes.