Among companies with a market capitalization of at least $10 billion, Hong Kong-based company Regencell Bioscience Holdings, which is engaged in research into methods for treating neurological diseases, recorded the largest increase last week, with its shares increasing by 18.36% over the past business week. The price of one share of this company reached $877.00. Next is Ulta Beauty. Shares of this American company selling cosmetics increased by 11.78% over the past business week, reaching $471.46 per share. This top three is closed by Zscaler, a provider of cloud cybersecurity services, with a growth of 9.79%. The price of one share of this company is $275.70.

The top three of large-cap companies that recorded the biggest losses last week starts off with Summit Therapeutics. The pharmaceutical company's stock price has fallen by 29.54% in a week and is now at $18.22 per share. Next is PDD Holdings. Share price of the parent company of the leading Chinese trading platform Pinduoduo has fallen by 19.06% to $96.51 per share. This top three is rounded out by another pharmaceutical company, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, whose share price has fallen by 16.67% to $490.28 per share.

Stock indexes fell last week after US President Donald Trump announced he wanted to impose 50 percent tariffs on goods imported from Europe. For the week, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 2.5 percent, the S&P 500 lost 2.6 percent, and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 2.5 percent. Despite this, the S&P 500 posted its biggest monthly gain since November 2023 in May, up 6.2 percent, while the Nasdaq Composite fared even better, up 10 percent in May.

In the wake of Trump's announcement of imposing tariffs of up to 50%, European stock indexes and US stock futures also fell, and the US dollar also depreciated as people moved their money into safer currencies, such as gold. Gold rose by 2%, and oil prices increased by almost 4%.

Despite ongoing trade concerns, European stock indexes ended May with gains. The main Stoxx 600 index rose 0.1 percent last Friday and ended the month with a gain of about 4%. Investors' optimism was linked to Trump's decision to put off imposing high tariffs on the EU.

The decline in US stock markets on Monday was also due to a new report on the US manufacturing sector, according to which the manufacturing sector fell more than economists had predicted. This caused uncertainty among investors, as Donald Trump had stated that the objective of his new tariff policy was to give a new impetus to US manufacturers.

US stock funds saw their second straight week of outflows. Investors pulled about $5.46 billion out of US stock funds in the week ending May 28. However, funds focused on certain sectors were in demand. In particular, technology and industrial stocks, which together attracted $1.9 billion. Meanwhile, bond funds saw inflows of nearly $7 billion over the same period, marking their sixth straight week of inflows. The strongest demand was for short- and intermediate-term bonds, which posted their largest weekly inflows since early March.

The recent growth in the US stock market has been led by shares of the "Magnificent Seven" of large technology companies; in particular, Microsoft, Apple, Meta, and Nvidia. Tesla, Nvidia, and Microsoft have recorded strong growth since early April, increasing by 56%, 40% and 30%, respectively. The seven largest technology companies accounted for more than 40% of the total increase in the S&P 500 index.

On Monday, 5 billion drams of government bonds were placed on Armenia’s stock market, and they will be redeemed on June 1, 2026. The respective public auction had four participants, and the amount of bids submitted by them totaled 14.8 billion drams. The weighted average price of these placed government bonds was 92.4630 drams, and the yield was 8.0840 percent.

US President Donald Trump's tariffs will remain in place for now. A federal appeals court has temporarily blocked a lower court's ruling that found these tariffs illegal. The United States Court of International Trade ruled last week that Trump had exceeded his authority by imposing large tariffs on imports from America's trading partners, stating that the US Constitution gives Congress, not the president, the power to impose tariffs. However, a US federal appeals court quickly stayed that decision in order to consider the appeal filed by the Trump government.


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