Weekly Market Update (Week Ending February 24th, 2017)

YO 11

The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished the week roughly 1% higher and managed to gain for 11 trading sessions in a row now. This is the Dow's longest winning streak since 1987. The S&P 500 rose 0.69% for the week while some momentum came out of the small cap market as the Russell 2000 fell 0.38%. The MSCI ACWI, our preferred measure of global stock market performance, rose 0.26% for the week. 

The rise in bond yields have slowed as the 10 Year Treasury Yield fell 10 basis points, or 0.10% from 2.41% to 2.31%. I think it is a little premature to think that yields are done moving higher but rates have started to stabilize. There is a Federal Reserve Bank meeting in two weeks, which could shed some light on further interest rate increases. 

Gold rallied for the fourth week in a row, adding 1.37% and has now risen over 9% year to date as some momentum has come out of the strong dollar. 

The big news coming this week will be the addressing of Congress by President Trump. One could argue that this rally has been built on hopes of tax cuts, rolling back of regulation and increased infrastructure spending. At some point, hope and expectations need to turn into reality in order for equity markets to continue with the impressive strength they've exhibited since the election.