MARKET RECAP*
- Global stock markets continued their momentum in January, with all major global indices posting strong gains
- The S&P 500 continued its winning streak to 15 positive months in a row
- The S&P 500 finished the month with a gain of 5.6%
- Top Sectors: Consumer Discretionary (+9.3%), Technology (+7.6%)
- Bottom Sectors: Utilities (‐3.1%), Real Estate (‐1.9%)
- Large Cap Growth once again continued its dominance over Value, finishing the month higher by 3.2%
- This was the widest monthly spread since February 2009
- Small Cap stocks gained 2.6% on the month, continuing their underperformance versus Large Caps
- International developed countries underperformed U.S. stocks by 0.6% on the month
- Much of international’s return was due to the dollar continuing to weaken versus most major currencies
- Emerging markets gained 8.3% on the month, bringing the twelve‐month total return of these markets to 39.4%
- Long‐Term Treasury yields finally began to rise during the month due to higher inflation expectations and a more hawkish stance by the Federal Reserve at their January meeting
- The ten‐year Treasury yield rose 0.32%, ending the month at 2.72%
ECONOMIC NEWS**
- The economy created 200,000 jobs in January, up 1.5% from last January
- Hourly wage growth came in at 2.9% growth year‐over‐year, the strongest growth seen since June 2009
- The Federal Reserve voted to hold the Fed Funds Rate steady at 1.25‐1.50% during their January meeting
- According to Bloomberg, the probability of another rate hike coming in March is at 99% and the odds of
four rate hikes in 2018 rose to 28%
- According to Bloomberg, the probability of another rate hike coming in March is at 99% and the odds of
