Trading results for 5-9 May 2025

The first full week of May turned out to be unusually toothless and featureless. That said, there were in fact many events, including several important ones – they had consequences and will certainly continue to influence the market. However, if one looks at the week purely from a statistical perspective, the results may seem completely flat. And indeed, there was not a single standout trading day, nor any more or less decent rally or drop. And this despite another FOMC meeting of the U.S. Federal Reserve, which usually sends prices flying up and down. In the end, all major U.S. indexes essentially went nowhere, with weekly losses ranging from -0.16% (Dow Jones index (DJIA-30)) to -0.3% for the S&P 500 and NASDAQ Composite.

Technically, all indexes had already broken above their 50-day SMAs the week before last. During the past week, they merely consolidated at those levels while still remaining below the critically important 200-day SMA. So any celebration or talk of the mini-crisis being over is clearly premature.

This is also reflected in the sectoral breakdown. Although 7 of the 11 economic sectors ended the week in positive territory, there is little to cheer about. The industrial sector performed best, with an average gain of +1.06%. However, the lion’s share of that growth came from shares of the aircraft manufacturer Boeing (BA), which rose 5% during the week and more than 50% over the past month. Last week, Boeing was boosted by news that International Airline Group (ICAGY), which owns British Air, is purchasing 32 Boeing 787 aircraft and holds options worth around 10 billion dollars. Deliveries are scheduled between 2028 and 2033. According to officials, the deal had been in development for some time and was not related to the trade agreement the Trump administration signed in its final days with the United Kingdom. This is undoubtedly good news for Boeing, especially considering that just last autumn many analysts and investors questioned whether the company had any real future.

Beyond industrials, oil and gas companies also performed well, as investors regained confidence amid rising crude prices.

The main losers of the week were medical stocks, which on average lost nearly 5% (-4.63%) of their value. The sharp sell-off was triggered by another round of tariff manoeuvres from President Trump. On 5 May, he signed an executive order aimed at stimulating domestic drug production in the U.S. Among other measures, the president wants to simplify and speed up inspections of pharmaceutical plants by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Trump made it clear that his trade plans are aimed at restoring manufacturing in the U.S., and in addition to this order, he said his administration would announce tariffs on pharmaceutical products within the next two weeks.

Given that many other drugmakers carry out production abroad – as it is cheaper – the new tariffs could increase production costs and lead to lower margins and profits for leading pharmaceutical firms. In the worst case, they could also seriously impact innovation across the sector.

As for the ITS index family, they performed slightly worse than their American counterparts last week. While the ITS Shariah (ITSS) index of Islamic securities lost almost as much as the U.S. indexes (-0.67%), losses for the global companies index ITS World (ITSW) were somewhat steeper at -1.61%. The main drag on this index came from Alphabet (GOOGL) shares, which faced heavy bearish pressure midweek after Apple (AAPL) executive Eddie Cue said that Safari search queries had fallen in April for the first time ever. Cue explained the drop by noting that people are increasingly using AI chatbots, and he predicted that AI-powered search engines will eventually replace traditional search.

Cue’s comments came during his testimony in federal court as part of the U.S. Department of Justice’s antitrust case against Alphabet – and immediately sent the company’s shares tumbling. The issue is that Alphabet pays Apple 20 billion dollars annually for Google to be the exclusive search engine on Safari.

In response, Alphabet denied Apple’s claims in a company blog post. It stated that it continues to see overall growth in search queries, including on Apple devices and platforms. Who is right remains unclear. But the issue itself is destabilising, and we are seeing it reflected in overall market sentiment.

Overall, it is clear that market participants have taken a pause and are waiting to see how events unfold – amid escalating trade wars and the release of initial macroeconomic data that should reveal how these conflicts are affecting the broader economy and what to expect in the near future.