Rover’s Weekly Market Brief – 05/16/2025

How To Find Top Performing Stocks

We have a created a help section called How To ^[1] which provides concise, direct recipes for performing common tasks in Stock Rover.

The How To posts can quickly show you how to accomplish things and help you use Stock Rover more productively. Today we want to highlight Finding Top Performing Stocks ^[2].

Economy

The Labor Department reported ^[3] that the consumer price index increased by 0.2% in April (seasonally adjusted), following a 0.1% increase in March and (+0.2%) in February. The all items index grew by 2.3% in the past year, a slight deceleration from March’s 2.4% and the slowest annual pace since February 2021. April’s monthly increase was largely driven by a 0.3% rise in the shelter index, which accounted for over half of the total. The energy index also saw a 0.7% increase, with natural gas (up 3.7%) and electricity (up 0.8%) price hikes offsetting a 0.1% decrease in gasoline. The food index, however, declined by 0.1%. Core CPI inflation edged up by 0.2% in April, following a 0.1% increase in March and a 0.2% rise in February, maintaining an annual rate of 2.8%. The shelter index’s 4.0% year-over-year increase matched the previous month’s, representing the smallest gain since November 2021. Notably higher year-over-year indexes included motor vehicle insurance (+6.4%), education (+3.8%), food (+2.8%), medical care (+2.7%), and recreation (+1.6%).

The Labor Department reported ^[4] that the producer price index for final demand, which tracks the prices producers pay for goods and services, decreased by 0.5% in April. This followed an upwardly revised unchanged reading for March and a 0.2% increase in February. Over the 12 months ending in April 2025, the PPI rose by 2.4%. The April decline was primarily driven by a significant 0.7% drop in final demand services, the largest since December 2009, largely due to a 1.6% decrease in margins for final demand trade services. Specifically, machinery and vehicle wholesaling margins fell sharply by 6.1%, contributing 40% to the overall decrease in final demand services. The core PPI, which excludes food, energy, and trade services, decreased by 0.1%, following a downwardly revised 0.2% increase for March and a 0.4% increase in February. For the 12-month period ending in April 2025, core PPI inflation was 2.9%, a deceleration from 3.5% for the 12-month period ending in March 2025.

The Commerce Department reported ^[5] a 0.1% rise in advance U.S. retail and food services sales in April, bringing the total to $724.1B. This follows a significantly upwardly revised 1.7% increase in March. Year-over-year, retail sales have increased by 5.2%, and the February-April period shows a 4.8% increase compared to last year. Sales increases were noted in building & garden (+0.8%), home furnishings (+0.3%), and internet retail (+0.2%). Meanwhile, restaurant sales (the sole service category) grew by 1.2% in April and a notable 7.8% from the previous year. Miscellaneous store retailers saw the most significant sales decline (-2.1%), with department stores (-1.4%) and gasoline stations (-0.5%) all reporting decreases. Excluding the motor vehicles & parts sector, retail sales were up 0.1%. When gasoline is also excluded, the increase was 0.2%, a decrease from February’s upwardly revised 1.1% increase.

Upcoming Economic Reports:

Thursday May 22 – Initial Jobless Claims

Friday May 23 – New Home Sales (April)

Earnings Calendar:

 

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
Agilysys (AGYS)	Palo Alto Networks (PANW)	Lowe’s Companies (LOW)	Analog Devices (ADI)	Booz Allen Hamilton (BAH)
Trip.com Group (TCOM)	Toll Brothers (TOL)	TJX Companies (TJX)	Intuit (INTU)	Buckle (BKE)