US equities advanced in the first full trading week of the year as investors largely looked past mounting geopolitical tensions, pushing most major indexes to all-time highs. Small-cap and value shares outpaced the large-cap growth stocks that have led returns in recent years, while an equal-weighted version of the S&P 500 Index outperformed its market cap-weighted counterpart. Of the major indexes, the Russell 2000 Index performed best, adding 4.62%, while the S&P 500 performed worst but still gained 1.57%. Stocks of aerospace & defense companies and homebuilders were volatile after several announcements by the Trump administration. On the macro side, several US labor market reports generally surprised to the downside. Nonfarm payrolls report on Friday showed that U.S. employers added a lighter-than-expected 50,000 jobs in December, while October’s and November’s readings were revised down by a combined 76,000. On the more positive side, the unemployment rate ticked down to 4.4% from a revised 4.5% in the prior month. US ISM survey show that manufacturing weakness persists, while services remain resilient. U.S. Treasuries posted modest gains while the dollar gained, rising to one-month highs. The pan-European STOXX Europe 600 Index ended 2.27% higher while Japan’s Nikkei 225 gained 3.18%. In commodities, silver soared 10% this week, followed closely by Platinum. Crude oil prices surged to end the week. Bitcoin ended the week unchanged after a strong start.
Have a great weekend
Charles & Syz Research Lab