Executive Mosaic’s GovCon Index stayed positive, rising 0.19% to $5,021. for its second consecutive daily gain this week. All three major stock indexes posted news highs due to lower inflation readings in April. The Nasdaq Composite (+1.17%) and S&P 500 (+1.17%) finished strong, while the blue-chip Dow Jones (+0.885) closed near the 40,000 level.
Top gainers mid-week include Monday.com (Nasdaq: MNDY) and D.R. Horton (NYSE: DHI). The stocks of the cloud-based workflow software maker and national homebuilder popped 21.37% and 6.47%. Meme stocks GameStop (NYSE: GME) and AMC Entertainment (NYSE: AMC) crashed back to Earth, falling 18.87% and 20%, respectively.
The GovCon Index marked its second consecutive daily gain as 21 stocks advanced. Boeing (NYSE: BA) was the worst performer with -2.09%, although none of the other eight decliners fell more than more percent. The Carlyle Group (Nasdaq: CG), Mercury Systems (Nasdaq: MRCY), and Tetra Tech (Nasdaq: TTEK) were the top gainers.
Military shipbuilder HII (NYSE: HII) announced signing a Strategic Collaboration Agreement with Amazon Web Services. This three-year SCA supports HII’s development and delivery of mission-critical capabilities.
Curtiss-Wright (NYSE: CW) won a contract of over $130 million to provide propulsion valves, pumps and advanced instrumentation and control systems for the U.S. Navy’s Virginia-class nuclear-powered attack submarine, Columbia-class submarine and Ford-class aircraft carrier programs.
Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) secured the High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) contract. The award from the Army Contracting Command is valued at $861.3 million. Also, on Wednesday, the U.S. Army awarded Lockheed Martin Aeronautics a $79 million cost-plus-fixed-fee contract involving the required parts for the F-35 aircraft.
The drop in the consumer price index and core CPI from 3.5% to 3.4% and from 3.8% to 3.6% in April were tailwinds for the stocks. Retail sales were also flat last month, indicating that consumers pulled back. Because of cooler inflation data, some analysts revived hopes of rate cuts this year.
However, Kansas City Fed President Jeffrey Schmid and Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari spoke this week, favoring high interest rates until price pressures have significantly eased.
Market Summary
| INDEX | PRICE | NET CHANGE | % CHANGE |
|---|---|---|---|
| GovCon Index Daily Average | 5,021.00 | 9.39 | 0.19% |
| Dow Jones Industrial Average | 39,908.00 | 349.89 | 0.88% |
| S&P 500 | 5,308.15 | 61.47 | 1.17% |
| NASDAQ | 16,742.39 | 231.21 | 1.40% |
Top 5 GovCon Index Daily Percentage Performers
| SYMBOL | PRICE | NET CHANGE | % CHANGE |
|---|---|---|---|
| CG | 44.06 | 1.76 | 4.16% |
| MRCY | 29.71 | 0.78 | 2.70% |
| TTEK | 217.27 | 4.31 | 2.02% |
| GIB | 104.25 | 1.91 | 1.87% |
| BAESY | 69.63 | 0.88 | 1.28% |
Top 5 GovCon Index Daily Net Performers
| SYMBOL | PRICE | NET CHANGE | % CHANGE |
|---|---|---|---|
| TTEK | 217.27 | 4.31 | 2.02% |
| CW | 277 | 2.52 | 0.92% |
| GIB | 104.25 | 1.91 | 1.87% |
| BAH | 150.95 | 1.89 | 1.27% |
| HON | 205.06 | 1.85 | 0.91% |
Top 5 GovCon Index Daily Percentage Decliners
| SYMBOL | PRICE | NET CHANGE | % CHANGE |
|---|---|---|---|
| BA | 176.99 | -3.77 | -2.09% |
| NOC | 469.65 | -4.42 | -0.93% |
| FLR | 38.41 | -0.34 | -0.88% |
| LMT | 464.08 | -3.10 | -0.66% |
| AVAV | 193.04 | -1.22 | -0.63% |
