My colleague Sam Millette, manager, fixed income on Commonwealth’s Investment Management and Research team, has helped me put together this month’s Economic Risk Factor Update. Thanks for the assist, Sam!

There were several important economic data releases last week, with a focus on business and consumer confidence as well as the May employment report. The jobs report was a highlight, as more jobs than expected were added during the month. This will be another busy week of updates, with reports covering international trade, consumer inflation, and consumer sentiment.

Markets stabilized in May after one of the worst months since the start of the pandemic. While it wasn’t a great month, after the terrible start to the year, any improvement was welcome. U.S. markets were mixed, with the Dow and S&P 500 up slightly, while the Nasdaq was down but not nearly as much as in prior months. International markets and fixed income also showed small gains.

Markets started to stabilize in May. The Dow and S&P 500 ended the month with small gains, while the Nasdaq’s loss was small by recent standards. International markets edged up a bit more than U.S. markets, while fixed income showed gains. The primary driver here was interest rates, which showed signs of stabilizing. Further, hiring remained strong, supporting spending growth, and business investment was healthy.

Last week’s important economic data releases included a look at April’s durable goods orders report and the minutes from the most recent Fed meeting. April’s personal income and spending reports were a highlight, as spending beat expectations for the month. This week’s highlights will include reports on consumer and business confidence and employment in May.

We saw the release of several important economic updates last week. The April retail sales report was a highlight and showed that sales growth came in strong during the month while March’s growth was revised upward. This will be another interesting week for updates, with reports on durable goods orders, the minutes from the most recent Fed meeting, and personal income and spending growth in April.

Hi, everybody. It has been a busy week. Even though the market continues to drop, frankly I don’t have much to say that I haven’t already said. So, this will be a very short post!

When we look at yesterday’s market performance, something stands out. It’s not just the magnitude of the decline, bad though it was, but the speed. And it wasn’t just yesterday, as this past month has seen pretty much all of the decline for the past quarter and well over half of the decline for the year. In other words, the market has essentially been down all year. It started to stabilize in March and April—only to collapse again in May. That’s scary.

This will be a short post as I am back from a Commonwealth conference and catching up. There are lots of things to think about, on both a professional and personal level, and I will share more going forward. As always, it was great to see my Commonwealth friends, old and new, and do some really cool stuff including a cooking class (didn’t see that coming, did you?) and a Red Sox game with Tim Wakefield, who very nicely signed a hat for my wife. She did very well out of the conference, with the hat and a signed pastry cookbook. You have to take care of the home front.

Today, I’m attending the Commonwealth Chairman’s Retreat conference. Of course, we’ll spend some time discussing business and the markets, but we’ll also get the chance to look at issues beyond that and into our own lives. Longtime readers may remember my column on gratitudes, where I talked about a Chairman’s presentation by psychologist Shawn Achor on how simply writing down three gratitudes a day could change your life for the better. I tried it, and it worked. I have now written down my gratitudes every day for several years, and there is no doubt it has made a very positive difference.