Market week: Markets upbeat on China stimulus, trade hopes

U.S. Treasury Secretary: Still lots of work to do

The major U.S. stock market gauges piled on the gains this past week, as investors reacted positively to comments from China’s Premier Li Keqiang that while a trade agreement between China and the U.S. was still several weeks away, China remained “very responsible and reasonable.” U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said there was still a lot of work to do. Li also stated that China would keep stimulus measures in place in an effort to reignite China’s economic growth. The S&P 500 Composite Index advanced 2.9% on the week as a result, while the tech-weighted Nasdaq Composite Index gained 3.8%. Toronto’s S&P/TSX Composite Index rode the coat-tails of U.S. markets, gaining 1.0% on the week, helped along by a 4.2% weekly surge in crude oil, as the index touched a five-month high at midday on Friday.

Index	March 15 close	Day	Week	Year to Date
S&P/TSX Composite	16,140.35	0.3%	0.90%	12.69%
S&P 500 Composite	2,822.48	0.4%	2.89%	12.59%
Nasdaq Composite	7,688.53	0.8%	3.78%	15.87%
Gold (US$)	$1,302.30	0.6%	0.28%	1.77%
Oil (WTI) (US$)	$58.38	-0.4%	4.16%	28.56%

FUND NEWS

* Sun Life repurposes and renames multi-strategy fund. Sun Life Global Investments announced on March 13 that its Sun Life Multi-Strategy Target Return Fund will become Sun Life Opportunistic Fixed Income Fund. The revamped fund will aim long-term capital appreciation and income through a diversified portfolio of global fixed income securities. In addition, the fund’s sub-advisor will change over to Wellington Management from Aviva Investors Canada. If approved the change will take effect after markets close on May 24, 2019.

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Disclaimer

The foregoing is for general information purposes only and is the opinion of the writer. No guarantee of investment performance is made or implied. It is not intended to provide specific personalized advice including, without limitation, investment, financial, legal, accounting or tax advice.