Wall Street's "3 Witches" session lived up to all its promises, with the US indices ending the month of May on a high (+5.6% to +9.5% compared with April 19), following a string of absolute records.
And to top it all off, the Dow Jones ended the month at 40.000 thanks to a providential last-minute boost of +25pts.

The Nasdaq climbed to 16,700pts at the opening (+0.2%), but lost momentum by mid-day to finish down -0.1%: consolation nonetheless, with a monthly gain of close to +10% (this was the case at 16,725 around 4:30 p.m.), the most spectacular since May...2000.

The day's most active stocks were Netflix +1.7%, Tesla +1.5%, Alphabet +1.1%, Nvidia -2%, Western Digital -2.7%, Illumina -3%.
But special mention goes to the S&P500 (+0.12%), which clung to the 5.300Pts (at 5,303) and has risen 11 out of 12 sessions in May... and 4 out of 5 this week.
Over the past month, the S&P will have gained 6.8%, the best May vintage in 24 years.
And 'last but not least', the VIX associated with the S&P500 has fallen below the 12 threshold (down -3.6% to 11.95), reflecting a level of market confidence not seen since December to April 2019.
Excessive appetite for risk or excessive complacency, current VIX levels appear completely disconnected from interest-rate conditions and early signals of an economic slowdown in the US.

The 10-year yield climbed +5pts to 4.4250%, after falling yesterday to 4.32%, its lowest level for over a month. Even so, the weekly score remains a healthy -7.5pts since May 10.

On the US "stats" front, the Conference Board's index of leading indicators, expected to decline by 0.3% in April, fell more sharply than expected, by -0.6% to 101.8, according to the Conference Board, which sees this as a sign of a slowdown in the economy (the index had already fallen by 0.3% in March, and analysts were expecting a more limited decline of around 0.3%).

The ConfBoard explains the deterioration of the index by the worsening of consumer sentiment, the weakness of business orders and the fall in building permits, but also by the stock market correction in April.

Note that next week will be marked by Nvidia's quarterly results.
Analysts are expecting better-than-expected performances from the processor manufacturer and an increase in its annual targets, as is customary for the Californian group.

Apart from the fixed-income and equity markets, Friday's most striking events were the confirmed breakout of silver above $29.3 (+3.5% to $30.70, a ten-year record) and the return of the ounce of gold above $2,400 (to $2,410), despite the deterioration in rates and the strengthening of the dollar towards 1.0850/E.

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