Among companies with a capitalization of at least $10 billion, the largest increase last week was recorded by AST SpaceMobile, a satellite broadband internet provider, whose shares increased by 35.20% over the past business week. The price of one share of this company reached $31.19. Next is Venture Global. Shares of this American company producing and exporting liquefied natural gas increased by 31.55% over the past business week, reaching $15.22 per share. This top three is completed by Nebius Group N.V., a company spun off from Yandex, providing infrastructure and cloud services, with an increase of 31.37%. The price of one share of this company is $48.28.

The top three largest-cap companies with the biggest losses last week starts off with Lululemon Athletica. This sportswear and accessories company's share price fell 16.23% to $265.27 per share. Next is Brown-Forman Corporation. The share price of this company, which produces alcoholic beverages such as Jack Daniel's, fell 15.69% to $28.11 per share. This top three is rounded out by DocuSign, a company that offers electronic signature and digital transaction management solutions, whose share price fell 15.04% to $75.28 per share.

The US stock market closed last week on a positive note, with all three major indexes posting significant gains. The S&P 500 rose 1.5%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average went up 1.17%, and the tech-share-heavy Nasdaq Composite increased 2.18%. Better-than-expected labor market data helped boost investors' confidence in the US economy, easing fears of a recession and easing pressure on the Federal Reserve to cut refinancing interest rates soon. The market's gains were also boosted by gains in technology shares and hopes for renewed US-China trade talks.

American stock market participants are becoming more optimistic. Major brokerages Barclays and Deutsche Bank have raised their year-end forecast for the S&P 500 index. This is mainly due to the easing of trade tensions between the US and China. Also, some companies have reduced the probability of a recession. Goldman Sachs estimates it at 35%, while Barclays does not see such a risk at all.

The tension between US President Donald Trump and billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk has had a significant impact on Tesla shares. They fell by more than 14% last week, as a result of which the company lost $152 billion in its market value. But Tesla shares later recovered slightly, by about 4%. The tension began after Musk criticized Trump's tax changes, which proposed to end state support for electric vehicles by the end of 2025. Trump, in turn, threatened to reduce US government contracts with Musk's companies, including SpaceX. Analysts say this conflict could seriously damage the Tesla brand, whose shares have already fallen by almost 27% so far this year.

European stock markets rose for the second week in a row last week. The pan-European STOXX 600 index rose 0.6% last week. The main drivers are the same as in the case of US stock markets: better-than-expected US labor market data, and some easing of US-China trade tensions.

Investors continued to withdraw money from US equity funds for the third week in a row. The reason is the uncertainty over US trade policy. About $7.4 billion was withdrawn from these funds this week alone. European equity funds, on the contrary, recorded an inflow of about $2.7 billion. Investors were inspired by the decrease in inflation in the EU area and the expected reduction in the refinancing interest rate by the European Central Bank (ECB). Bond funds continued to attract investments. Global bond funds recorded an inflow of $16.17 billion.

Hedge funds closed May with a profit. According to JPMorgan, the average hedge fund profit was 3%. Among the major players, Millennium and Balyasny's profits increased by more than 1% during the month, and some areas of AQR Capital went up by about 2.4%.

Broadcom shares fell more than 3% on Friday, despite the company’s earnings forecast being higher than analysts had expected. The chip giant, which supplies artificial intelligence (AI) chips to Apple and Samsung, has been vulnerable to US President Trump’s shifting trade policies and export restrictions despite strong demand in the AI market. Broadcom shares have risen about 12% this year, but are now falling after weaker-than-expected growth.

US job growth slowed in May as uncertainty over President Trump's tariff policy continued. The US economy added 139,000 jobs in May, considerably down from the preliminary figures for March and April. The unemployment rate in the country remained unchanged at 4.2%. Despite this, wages rose 0.4% in May, suggesting a solid labor market.

The ECB has cut its key refinancing interest rate for the eighth time in a year, confirming that eurozone inflation is under control. The ECB changed the refinancing interest rate from 2.25% to 2%, calling it a neutral level that neither stimulates nor hinders the economy. The decision came amid the risk of a potential trade war with the US, and this is already negatively affecting business investment and exports.

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