Meme trade falls, JOLTS signal normalization: Trading takeaways

Yahoo Finance's Josh Schafer joins Asking for a Trend to break down the trading day's takeaways.

While the US Job Opening and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) saw job openings fall to the lowest level since February 2021, Schafer points out that weak data isn't necessarily bad. He notes that in the context of the pre-pandemic levels, May's JOLTS report could signal a normalization.

Turning to energy, Schafer explains that the sector has been the worst-performing of the S&P 500 (^GSPC) in the last two months. He notes, "When energy started rallying, we were talking a lot about a potential reflation trade. We were talking about worries and inflation through the first quarter. Energy usually benefits in that sort of scenario. Over the last month, as we've been talking about softening data, if the economy slows down, that might be good for inflation. So that's one thing that sort of feeds into it."

Schafer's final takeaway is the fall of the meme stock trade after the online return of "Roaring Kitty," best known for the GameStop (GME) short squeeze of 2021.

For more expert insight and the latest market action, click here to watch this full episode of Asking for a Trend.

This post was written by Melanie Riehl