Market Commentary
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The CPC Team
June 5, 2025
May 2025 Economic & Market Highlights
- U.S. equities rebounded sharply in May 2025, with US Large Cap Stocks rising by 6.3%, US Mega Cap Stocks by 4.2%, and US Small Cap Stocks by 5.3%. This was largely due to inflation decreasing slightly and increased trade optimism, as the Trump administration temporarily reduced tariffs.
- International markets also had a great month, with International Developed Stocks up 4.6% and Emerging Markets Stocks not far behind at 4.3%. These increases were driven by a weakening U.S. dollar and shifts in global trade dynamics, creating attractive valuations.
- In contrast, fixed income markets faced challenges. Taxable bonds declined by 0.7% as investors adjusted expectations for prolonged higher interest rates.
The S&P 500 is an unmanaged index of 500 widely held stocks that is generally considered representative of the U.S. stock market. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA), commonly known as "The Dow" is an index representing 30 stock of companies maintained and reviewed by the editors of the Wall Street Journal. The Russell 2000 Index measures the performance of the 2,000 smallest companies in the Russell 3000 Index, which represent approximately 8% of the total market capitalization of the Russell 3000 Index. The MSCI EAFE (Europe, Australasia, and Far East) is a free float-adjusted market capitalization index that is designed to measure developed market equity performance, excluding the United States & Canada. The EAFE consists of the country indices of 22 developed nations. The MSCI Emerging Markets is designed to measure equity market performance in 25 emerging market indices. The index's three largest industries are materials, energy, and banks. Bloomberg US Aggregate (BBAG): The index is a measure of the investment grade, fixed-rate, taxable bond market of roughly 6,000 SEC-registered securities with intermediate maturities averaging approximately 10 years. The index includes bonds from the Treasury, Government-Related, Corporate, MBS, ABS, and CMBS sectors. Bloomberg Municipal Bond Index: The index is a measure of the long-term tax-exempt bond market with securities of investment grade (rated at least Baa by Moody's Investors Service and BBB by Standard and Poor's). This index has four main sectors: state and local general obligation bonds, revenue bonds, insured bonds, and prerefunded bonds.
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