Market View

Stocks inched higher and then sideways as more US data released over the week. US Central bank reconfirmed its intention to be “patient” with interest rate hikes. US and China continue negotiations over trade war details, just a week away from the Washington-imposed deadline that is set to trigger higher US tariffs. The Canadian dollar was 75.63 cents U.S. S&P500 was up 1.1% this week and TSX up 1.9%.

All but one of the subgroups ended the week positive. Energy jumped the highest, by 4.3%, followed by materials 3.5% and industrials 2.7%. Healthcare was down by 2.2%. Magna International posted better-than-expected quarterly profit, attributed to more assembled vehicles from new launches. Royal Bank of Canada posted a 2 percent rise in first-quarter earnings. Growth in personal and commercial banking offset by lower earnings at its insurance and capital markets divisions. Saputo Inc announced that it would enter the British market for the first time after agreeing to buy food company Dairy Crest Group Plc for 975 million pounds. Barrick Gold is considering a hostile bid for Newmont for $19 billion in stock. This could potentially be one of the largest-ever mining deals, as said by Globe and Mail. The most heavily traded shares by volume were Goldcorp, Aurora, and Aphria.

5 from 5i

Here are five reads we found interesting last week:

-Why do markets generally go up?

-Evergreen market strategies

-Risk versus Returns, a relationship

-Cheap relative to value

-Herding is necessary for survival on earth, but not necessarily in trading

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