John Hancock Weekly Market Recap: Week Ended June 22

Approaching halftime

With one week to go before the halfway point of 2018, different segments of the U.S. equity market have exhibited sharply divergent returns. Year to date, growth stocks have outperformed value stocks by a wide margin and small caps have beaten large caps. Among major indexes, the NASDAQ has outperformed the S&P 500 and the Dow.

Down on the Dow

After posting mixed results for the previous week, the major U.S. stock indexes fell, with the Dow dropping 2%, more than twice as much as the S&P 500 and the NASDAQ. Thursday marked the Dow’s eighth daily decline in a row—the index’s longest losing streak since March 2017.

Energy surge

The Dow on Friday snapped an eight-day losing streak as stocks recovered some of the previous days’ declines. Energy stocks were a key catalyst, as a sharp daily gain in crude oil prices lifted the shares of several oil producers

Record day

On a day when the Dow slipped again, the NASDAQ climbed to a record high on Wednesday, as did the Russell 2000 Index, a small-cap benchmark. For the Russell 2000, it was the first time the index closed above 1,700 points.

Overseas underperformance

In the latest week, the biggest overseas equity markets extended their run of year-to-date underperformance versus U.S. stocks, as represented by the S&P 500. A Chinese index tumbled 4.4%, a Japanese index dropped 1.5%, and a European index fell 1.1%

Source: jhinvestments