After a shaky start to the trading month on Monday, equities have seen solid gains over the last two trading days and are on track for a third straight day of positive returns today. Treasuries are also continuing their strong rally as talks between the US and Mexico over tariffs failed to result in an agreement.  In Europe, the ECB left rates unchanged (as expected) and noted that rates will remain at current levels through at least the first half of 2020.

Economic data just released showed Initial Jobless Claims and Productivity readings that were pretty much right inline with expectations, while Unit Labor Costs came in significantly weaker than expected (-1.6% vs -0.8%).

Please click the link below to read today’s Bespoke Morning Lineup for our take on the latest news driving markets overseas overnight and this morning.

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After the worst May in years, June is off to a very strong start as the S&P 500 is up 2.69% after the first three trading days.  As shown in the table below, that ranks as the eighth strongest start to the month in the index’s history and the best since 2000.  The table below lists the eleven years where the first three trading days of June saw returns stronger than 2%.  Of the seven years where June saw a stronger gain in the first three trading days, returns over the rest of the month were mixed ranging from a loss of 9.4% to a gain of 8.3% and an average decline of 0.1%.  In the four months where returns were above 2% but weaker than this year, the rest of the month was consistently negative.

Start a two-week free trial to Bespoke Premium to see today’s full Morning Lineup report. You’ll receive it in your inbox each morning an hour before the open to get your trading day started.

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