Nine Straight Green Weeks

The S&P closed its ninth straight winning week with the VIX at a four-month low, crude finished May down roughly seventeen percent on Strait of Hormuz de-escalation, and the cyclical lineup ran near ninety-eight percent deployed while three sectors and the blue-chip index stayed at zero.

Brad Roth
May 31, 2026

TL;DR

• A four-day week after Memorial Day, and everything worked. The S&P 500 closed +1.4% at 7,580.06, its ninth straight weekly gain and the longest streak since 2023. The Nasdaq Composite led at +2.4%, the Dow added 0.9% to a fresh record, and the Russell 2000 ran +1.7%.

• Crude kept falling. WTI settled near $87, down about 12% on the week and roughly 17% across May, as a US-Iran ceiling on Hormuz tensions pulled the geopolitical premium back out. Gold firmed near $4,565, the VIX closed 15.32, and the 10-year eased to roughly 4.45%.

• Nothing flipped in the lineup. Both systematic strategies held near 98% deployed with combined cash near 1.4%. Technology firmed to the top cyclical weight at 16.7% as the AI build-out broadened past the chip names, while Energy, Healthcare, and Consumer Staples stayed at zero.

Week in Review

Markets reopened Tuesday after the long weekend and ground higher across all four sessions on broad participation. Wednesday brought the Q1 GDP second estimate and weekly claims, and Thursday carried the April inflation reading that frames the Fed's June meeting, now two weeks out. The standout came after Wednesday's bell: Dell reported AI server revenue up 757% year over year to $16.1 billion, surpassing its PC business for the first time, and raised its full-year outlook to roughly $60 billion in AI servers. The stock jumped 32.8% Friday, its best day ever, and pulled the AI-infrastructure complex with it.

Crude was the other story. WTI slid to roughly $87 by Friday, the lowest in about six weeks, as a preliminary US-Iran agreement to ease Strait of Hormuz restrictions drained the war premium that had pushed the contract through $100 a month earlier. Brent fell 1.7% on Friday alone. Gold pushed the other way, firming back toward records as the metals bid held. Yields eased across the curve and equity vol drifted to the floor.

For the week:

• S&P 500: 7,580.06 Friday close, +1.4% on the week, a ninth straight weekly gain

• Nasdaq Composite: 26,972.62 Friday close, +2.4% on the week, the leader among the majors

• Dow Jones Industrial Average: 51,032.46 Friday close, +0.9% on the week, a fresh record

• Russell 2000: 2,919.34 Friday close, +1.7% on the week

• 10-year Treasury yield: roughly 4.45% Friday, down about eleven basis points on the week

• 2-year Treasury yield: near 4.02%, easing a few basis points

• 30-year Treasury yield: just above 5%

• VIX: 15.32 Friday close, a four-month low, down from near 17 the prior Friday

• WTI front month: near $87 Friday, off roughly 12% on the week and about 17% across May

• Gold: near $4,565 Friday, up roughly 2% on the week, back near records

• Bitcoin: roughly $73,800, off about 4% on the week

Allocation Changes

Nothing flipped. Combined deployment closed the week near 98%, the same posture it entered with, and combined cash sits near 1.4%.

THOR Index Rotation ran the same Nasdaq and broad-market pair into and out of the week. Nasdaq exposure closed at 51.4%, broad-market exposure at 48.2%, cash at 0.5%. The Dow held at zero through its own record close on Friday, with the blue-chip basket still unconfirmed at the strategy level.

THOR Low Volatility held its seven active cyclical sectors at roughly equal weight through every session. Technology firmed to 16.7% from 15.9% as the AI-server demand story broadened and the sector picked up the move. Consumer Discretionary held 13.8%, Industrials 13.7%, Real Estate eased to 13.6% from 13.9%, and Utilities, Materials, and Financials sat near 13.4% in the equal band. Energy, Healthcare, and Consumer Staples stayed at zero. Cash and T-bills held near 2.2%.

The Bigger Picture

Nine weeks without a down week, the VIX at a four-month low, every major index green, the Dow at another record. The kind of week where it feels like the system should own everything. It doesn't. Three sectors sit at zero, the blue-chip index sits at zero, and the lineup ran the melt-up at full deployment without buying the parts it hasn't confirmed. A broad rally is not a reason to abandon selectivity. It is the environment where selectivity is hardest to keep and most worth keeping.

Crude is the cleanest example. WTI fell about 17% across May as the Hormuz premium unwound, and the conventional read pairs cheap oil with an energy underweight and calls it a miss. The lineup reads it the other way. Energy at zero means it owns the tailwind, not the barrel. Cheaper crude flows straight to the consumer-discretionary and industrials sectors it does hold, the parts of the economy that spend less to move goods and fill tanks. The system filtered crude's slide as event-driven, the same way it kept energy out when the contract spiked through $100 a month ago on the war headlines. Symmetric discipline. It didn't chase the spike and it isn't catching the falling knife now. Materials at 13.4% carries the metals side of the commodity complex instead, and gold pushing back toward records is the position doing the work there.

The build-out broadening is what firmed Technology to the top weight. Dell's quarter showed AI capital spending flowing past the chip names into the server and infrastructure layer, with AI servers out-earning PCs for the first time in the company's history. Technology at 16.7% carries that breadth across the sector rather than a single concentrated name, and the index sleeve runs the Nasdaq read heavier for the same reason. Yields easing eleven basis points sat directly under the rate-sensitive sleeve, Real Estate and Utilities, the physical and power layer of the same capex cycle. Healthcare and Consumer Staples stayed out, the two defensive sleeves a nine-week win streak would normally pull in as complacency hedges. The system hasn't confirmed either. And the Dow ran its record without the lineup, because thirty price-weighted blue-chips miss the hyperscaler cohort the broad market has leaned on all cycle.

THOR Risk Gauge

Bullish. Both systems sit near fully deployed, combined equity exposure around 98% with combined cash near 1.4%, the posture carried through the week. The backdrop is about as clean as it reads: a ninth straight weekly gain, the VIX at a four-month low of 15.32, yields easing across the curve, and crude down hard enough to read as a support rather than a threat. The caution is the streak itself. Nine weeks without a down week with a vol gauge on the floor is the kind of complacency that rewards staying deployed but selective, which is exactly where the lineup sits with three sectors and the blue-chip index still at zero.

Signal Watch

THOR Index Rotation - As of 5/29/26

Two indexes near equal weight, cash under one percent. The Nasdaq carries the heavier weight as the AI build-out broadened past the chip names this week. The Dow held at zero through its own record close, with the strategy still not confirming the blue-chip basket at the index level.

THOR Low Volatility - As of 5/29/26

Seven cyclical sectors active at roughly equal weight, cash near two percent. Technology firmed to the top weight as the AI-server demand story broadened beyond the chip cohort. Energy stayed at zero through a week crude fell hard, with the lineup carrying cheaper oil as a benefit to the consumer and cyclical sectors it holds rather than as a position in the falling commodity. Healthcare and Consumer Staples stayed out even into the win streak, the two defensive sleeves the system hasn't confirmed.

Weekend Reading

Podcast: Jon Clements joined this week's Behind the Ticker. Clements built his career in equity research at Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, and Guggenheim before co-founding Market Desk Research with his brother Matt, a platform serving 200 of the largest wealth managers in the country that eventually became an ETF issuer. The conversation digs into why their momentum approach uses a six-month lookback instead of the academic twelve, why it scores the quality and consistency of a stock's price path rather than just trailing return, and why a concentrated equal-weighted portfolio of 30 to 50 names ends up with only about 2% overlap with the S&P 500. He also takes the skeptic's question head-on: isn't momentum just performance chasing? A substantive listen on what price data actually tells you. Listen on Spotify

Dell stock skyrockets 32% for its best day ever as AI server revenue soars - CNBC, May 29
The week's central catalyst. AI server revenue jumped 757% year over year to $16.1 billion, surpassing the PC business for the first time, and the company raised its full-year outlook to roughly $60 billion in AI servers. The clearest sign yet that AI capital spending is broadening past the chip names into the infrastructure layer the cyclical lineup's top weight sits closest to.

Oil Market Report - May 2026 - International Energy Agency
The structural backdrop to crude's slide. OPEC+ continues to unwind voluntary output cuts at roughly 400,000 barrels a day each month while demand growth forecasts soften, framing a month that took WTI down near 17%. Useful for reading why the energy sector's continued absence is the lineup owning the tailwind rather than the falling barrel.

Central banks are buying more gold than expected, and purchases will increase further through 2026 - Goldman Sachs - Kitco News, May 19
The bid under gold's push back toward records. Goldman sees central bank demand averaging around 60 tonnes a month through 2026, a structural floor under the metal as diversification away from the dollar continues. The macro layer behind the metals exposure the Materials sector carries.

Quote of the Week

"It never was my thinking that made the big money for me. It always was my sitting."

- Jesse Livermore

Brad Roth / CIO, THOR Financial Technologies

This content reflects the opinions, analyses, and research of THOR Financial Technologies as of the date published. It is provided for informational and educational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice and should not be relied upon as the basis for any investment decision. Past performance doesn't guarantee future results, and all investments involve risk. For more information, please go to: thorft.com