The S&P 500 Index notched a new record high on Thursday before dipping modestly lower on Friday. Growth stocks outperformed value shares during the week for the 1st time this year. Large-caps generally outperformed small-caps. It was a quiet week on the US macro front although it ended on a very down note as Services PMI plunged and inflation expectations soared. Headlines during the week were largely dominated by political developments in the wake of Monday’s inauguration of President Trump. Notably, he did not impose a new round of tariffs on day one—as some had feared—and instead, called for a review of U.S. trade policies to determine the impact of potential future tariffs. On Tuesday, Trump announced a new J-V between Softbank, OpenAI, Oracle, and MGX called Stargate, which will reportedly provide up to USD 500 billion toward the construction of data centers and other AI-related infrastructure. Stocks with exposure to AI rallied following the announcement. U.S. Treasuries generated marginally negative returns heading into Friday as yields increased slightly across most maturities. In the rest of the world^, the STOXX Europe 600 Index ended 1.2% higher. The Nikkei 225 Index gained 3.85% while the Hang Seng Index gained 2.5%. Gold rallied for the 4th straight week to within pennies of a new record close. crude oil prices suffered their biggest weekly drop in three months. The dollar recorded its biggest weekly drop since July 2023. Bitcoin was up for the second week in a row up near a record high.
Have a great week-end!
Charles for the team