The S&P 500 Just Had Its Best Month Since 2020. Don’t Let ‘Sell in May’ Spook You.

The S&P 500 experienced its strongest monthly performance since 2020, driven by a combination of robust corporate earnings and easing inflation concerns. This rally reflects a shift in risk appetite among investors, as they increasingly favor equities over safer assets in light of improving economic indicators. The S&P 500 is particularly exposed to this trend, as strong earnings reports from key sectors have bolstered confidence in continued growth. Traders will be watching the upcoming employment data release for further insights into economic health and potential impacts on monetary policy.

HIGH-impact news is typically a market-moving event with multi-pip or multi-percent intraday reactions. Examples include central bank rate decisions, major CPI/NFP releases, geopolitical shocks, mega-cap earnings beats/misses, and regulatory announcements. Traders typically position-reduce or hedge ahead of scheduled HIGH-impact events, and follow the wire in real time to react to unscheduled ones (war headlines, central-bank emergency statements, surprise corporate actions). The Trading News Terminal squawk box reads every HIGH-impact headline aloud the moment it hits the wire — so active traders don't have to stare at the feed.

Active traders typically follow a three-step workflow when a market-moving headline hits the wire: (1) read the headline on the terminal or hear it on the squawk box; (2) assess whether the news is already priced in (by checking intraday price action in the seconds before) or whether it's genuinely new information; (3) act — either entering a breakout position, fading an overreaction, or tightening stops on existing trades. Trading News Terminal's Pro plan delivers wire-grade headlines within seconds of the source, with automatic audio squawk on every HIGH-impact event, so the read-assess-act cycle never waits on a refresh button.