• Following the FOMC June meeting last week, statements from Bernanke about expectations to ease back the Feds bond-buying program became the key market catalyst for the week causing equities and treasuries to sell off significantly.
• The Fed remarks pushed up the benchmark 10-year U.S Treasury yields to its highest in almost two years above
• The Fed updated its economic growth projections to 2.3-2.6% versus the previous 2.3-2.8%, and its view for declining unemployment to 6.5-6.8%.
• On Thursday, CBOE Volatility Index rose to its highest level since the fiscal cliff talks this past December.
• For May, housing starts rose to 6.8% MoM while existing home sales rose to 4.2% MoM.
• For the first time in two years Gold dropped below $1,300 and ounce.
• All sectors ended the week low with industrial and energy as the two best performing sectors while telecommunications and utilities sectors were the worst performing since both are sensitive to interest rate changes.
• The Consumer Price Index increased 0.1% in May.
• For the week ending 6/21/13, the S&P 500 fell -2.11% closing at 1592.43. The MSCI EAFE Index lost – 3.76% closing at 1625.85 and the MSCI EM Index dropped -5.57% to end the week at 900.54.
