Morningstar Indexes: Weekly Market Report

Markets ended a two-week slide on small doses of positive economic news. Personal income rose 0.5% for the month, and the economy grew at an annual rate of 5.3% in the first quarter. Thanks in part to strong gains on Thursday and Friday, the Morningstar US Market Index ended the week of May 26 ahead by 0.98%.

Value stocks continued to assert their dominance as the Morningstar Value Index expanded its year-to-date lead over the Morningstar Growth Index. The Morningstar Large Value Index was the pick of the week among the nine Morningstar style indexes, posting a gain of 1.53%. The Morningstar Mid Cap Growth Index was the only index to finish the week in the red. It had a 0.01% loss.

Energy, financial services, and telecommunications firms dominated the Morningstar Large Value Index. Energy stocks benefited from a midweek rebound in oil prices, lifting ExxonMobil XOM 1.87% and Chevron CVX 2.33%. The successful $2.5 billion IPO of MasterCard MA pushed other credit-card issuers higher. Bank of America BAC was up 2.3%, Citigroup C rose 1.58%, and JP Morgan Chase & Co. JPM increased 1.12%.
 
Telecommunication firms AT&T T, BellSouth BLS, and Verizon Communications VZ climbed back after the FCC announced there would not be an investigation into their role in the domestic spying scandal. Celgene CELG, a biopharmaceutical firm, jumped 5.5% on approval by the FDA of Thalomid for the treatment of bone-marrow cancer. And JDS Uniphase JDSU, a fiber-optic equipment manufacturer, rose 10.43% on an analyst's upgrade.