In a reversal of the April sell-off, equity and bond markets generally performed well in May. The MSCI World index of developed markets gained 4.5% while US Treasuries returned 1.5% and Global Government bonds 1.0%. The US equity market led the way, +4.9%, with tech dominant. The Nasdaq index returned +6.9% and the Magnificent 7 megacap tech stocks +10.3% (taking the YTD return to 21.5%). Within this it was Nvidia again forging ahead, +27% in May on the back of yet another extraordinary set of quarterly results, with the company expecting demand for its products to outstrip supply into 2025. The stock has risen by 121% YTD, and since the ChatGPT launch in November 2022 Nvidia’s market capitalisation has risen by over $2tn, taking it to $2.7tn at 31 May, within a whisker of the world’s two largest companies, Microsoft at $3.1tn and Apple at $2.9tn. To put this into perspective, the market capitalisation of the whole UK stock market is around $3tn.
