Market View

The Federal Reserve announced a quarter-point rate hike this week. Fed Chairman Jerome Powell noted that the Federal Open Market Committee participants don’t see rate cuts this year. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen commented that strong actions will be taken to ensure Americans’ deposits are safe. The 10-year Treasury’s yield ended the week at 3.406%, it was 4.08% earlier this month. The Canadian dollar was 72.80 cents USD. The U.S. S&P500 ended the week up 1.4%, while the TSX was up 0.5%.

A lot more greens this week than reds. Energy and technology gained 2.2% and 2.0%, respectively. Consumer staples added 1.8%, while healthcare and materials edged up by 1.8% and 1.2%, respectively. Real estate and utilities gave up 1.7% and 1.4%, respectively. Industrials ended the week down 0.9% while financials ended the week flat. The most heavily traded shares by volume were Toronto-Dominion Bank, Cenovus Energy, and Power Corporation of Canada.

5 from 5i

Here are five reads we found interesting last week:

• As winter wanes, prices continue to cool, published by Fisher Investments
• Are banks ok? Where the sector stands after a turbulent week, by Nitish Pahwa of Slate
• A Fed tale as old as time, published by Claudia of Stay-At-Home Macro
• Tech’s very bad year, in numbers, authored by Issie Lapowsky and Erin Wong of the rest of world
• The A to Z of economics, posted by the Economist

Happy Reading & Stay Safe!

Disclosure: The analyst(s) responsible for this report do not have a financial or other interest in securities mentioned.