Market View

US Federal Reserve raised its benchmark rate by a quarter of a point this week as expected. Slightly dovish tone set up a market rally seen over the past two sessions. Gold prices maintained a steady range while the US dollar edged lower. The Canadian dollar was 74.69 cents USD. The U.S. S&P500 ended the week up 2.2%, while the TSX was up 0.5%.

Another mostly green sector performance with technology gaining 4.4%, followed by consumer discretionary and industrials adding 2.9% and 2.4%, respectively. Financials edged up by 2.0%. Energy slid by 4.3%, while healthcare and utilities gave up 1.7% and 0.9%. The most heavily traded shares by volume were Hut 8 Mining Corp, Shopify Inc, and Cenovus Energy.

5 from 5i

Here are five reads we found interesting last week:

• Inflection points and earnings pessimism, by Fisher Investments Editorial Staff
• Fed to deliver two 25-basis point hikes in Q1, followed by a long pause, by Prerana Bhat of Reuters
• Why Toyota spent years treating electric cars like the enemy, by Nitish Pahwa of Slate.com
• Dot-com redux, authored by Nick Schmitz of Verdad
• Netflix’s new chapter, posted on Stratechery

Happy Reading & Stay Safe!

Disclosure: The analyst(s) responsible for this report do not have a financial or other interest in securities mentioned.