Market Action

• The US equity markets rebounded this week to effectively erase prior week’s losses in all areas save for technology. The Dow gained 381.79 points for the week while the S&P and NASADQ, both registered gains of 49.16 and 95.79 respectively.
• Technology as measured by the NASDAQ rebounded well early this week but was burdened by earnings disappointments from tech giants Google(GOOG) and IBM.
• Spot gold and silver ended the week at 1295.4 and 19.80 per ounce respectively. Investors rotated out of hard assets in favor of equities in light of the Fed discussion of its interest rate forecast this week.
• The bond market made a move down due to the expectation that the Fed will keep rates lower longer than it eluded to earlier. The 10 year treasury saw a 10bp move up in the rate for the week.
• Oil (WTI) started the week at 103.42 and traded up to finish the week at 104.3, reflecting a gain of $0.88/bbl. Tensions with Russia are impacting forecasts of future supplies.
• The USD gained against the Euro for the week (1.3881- 1.3816).
• Biotech remained volatile this week with the iShares Biotech ETF (IBB) closing just above its 200 day moving average.
• Financials had a good week with Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs beating estimates.
• Commercial bank lending increased this week as consumer credit demand started to slow.
• Initial jobless claims were in-line with estimates
• China GDP came in at 7.4% and exceeded the estimate of 7.3%. Q over Q growth of 1.4% was below the estimate of 1.5%.

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