Investors are at a crossroads as June kicks off. Here’s what could be ahead

Published Wed, Jun 1 20229:26 AM EDT

Positive news out of China (lockdowns easing, Foxconn making positive comments) and generally positive comments from Salesforce (which is a stand-in for tech growth) are all helping sentiment this morning. The S & P 500 was flat for last month as sharp gains in energy stocks mitigated declines elsewhere in the market. Indeed, energy is the only sector in the S & P 500 that is exhibiting any kind of momentum as we enter June. The SPDR S & P Oil and Gas Exploration ETF ( XOP ), the VanEck Oil Refiners ETF ( CRAK ) and the Oil Services ETF ( OIH ) all at or near highs for the year. Some thematic tech subsectors such as solar and lithium & battery have also been strong recently. It's sad times for IPOs. May ended as the slowest month for new IPO filings in over five years, with just four initial filings — only one of which filed to raise more than $50 million. That's according to Renaissance Capital, who run the Renaissance Capital IPO ETF ( IPO ). The IPO ETF fell 12% for the month, as there were only seven IPOs in May that raised $1.1 billion, led by eyecare giant Bausch + Lomb . A meager $3.9 billion in IPOs has been raised in 2022. To give you a sense of how poor that is, a record $490 billion was raised for 2021. IPOs: Capital raised 2022 YTD: $3.9 billion 2021: $490 billion 2020: $203 billion 2019: $109 billion 2018: $160 billion Source: Renaissance Capital, Morningstar The retail trader is having a tough time. That's according to Anthony Denier, CEO of Webull. Denier tells me that the average account balance at Webull has gone from roughly $5,000 to $3,000. Denier will explain how many brokers are diversifying into passive investing and even payment systems on today's ETF Edge at 1 p.m. ET. The show can be watched here . What will earnings look like in the second half? DataTrek Research co-founder Nicholas Colas has been echoing a theme I have been sounding for a couple months: "Earnings expectations for the rest of the year look too high, and there is a lot of room for estimate cuts before we get to the current earnings run rate," he told clients. Colas will give his second-half outlook on ETF Edge.