May Market Moves
Hello everyone! Welcome to the May 2026 edition of the boodle blog. If this is your first time here, we thank you for joining our financial community. If you are a returning member, welcome back. At Boodle we believe that the person most capable of managing your portfolio is you, and we teach you how to accomplish this task in a way that you will find financially beneficial.
Before we turn our attention to our opinion on what to expect from the market in the month of May, let’s take a look back at the previous month in the market and see if we can find clues moving forward .
The month of April started off with the war drums pounding between the U.S. and Iran. Many pundits predicted that America was in a war that would devolve into a Vietnam-like blunder. The price of oil & gas surged (and continue to do so as we go to press). The Iranians tightened their grip on the straight of Hormuz and the market initially went down- but then something happened. The market began to price in the cost of the war, and economic data started to point to the resiliency of the U.S. economy. Suddenly, stocks started to go on a tear and the numbers for April speak for themselves- the DOW advanced 7.01% and the S&P 500 turned in a stellar 10.38% gain. The NASDAQ won the month with a blistering performance of 1499%! These are not expectant end of the year numbers, these are numbers for the month of April. What an amazing performance!
You could not afford to be out of the market in April for even one day. Jobs numbers for the month of April showed a pretty good gain of 178,000 (subject to revisions). Inflation fell to 2.3% while housing, gas and a few other indicators rose at a faster clip.Meanwhile, the tenure of Fed Chairman Jerome Powell is coming to an end this month and Kevin Warsh will occupy that seat within the next couple of weeks. Currently, it remains unclear if Chairman Powell will leave the Reserve totally or if he will remain a member.
We at Boodle think it would be in the nation's best interest if he were not on the Fed Board.
So, as you have just read, it has been some month for investors and their portfolios, to say the least. What does boodle have to say about the near-term market outlook? We believe there is still a greater opportunity for market advancement going forward. We are cautious within this view because of the incredible numbers that were just posted for the month of April. We think there is opportunity in the AI space and we also look favorably on the energy sector.
We believe a well-balanced diversified portfolio will serve our financial community well and we think a dollar-cost-average approach is how our members should approach this market which currently sits at an all-time high, as measured by the S&P Index.
Boodle will continue to monitor the economy and the markets, and you are welcomed to join us back here for the month of June. Until next time, have an enjoyable month of May and we hope to see you here next month as we journey on the road to financial freedom.