Market week: Indices continue to rally

Muted inflation, trade talk momentum

Boosted by a tick down in the U.S. inflation rate for December, to an annual 1.9%, dovish comments from U.S. Federal Reserve Board officials on interest rate policy, and growing momentum in U.S.-China trade talks this past week, markets made considerable gains on the week, continuing their rally from late-December lows. Toronto’s S&P/TSX Composite Index gained 3.6% on the week, propelled by a 7.1% advance in the price of crude oil, which has gained 13.7% in the past two weeks, as well as indications from the Bank of Canada that it is pausing its rate-hike program for now as it left its benchmark rate unchanged last week. The broad U.S. blue-chip S&P 500 Composite Index logged a 2.5% advance on the week, while the Nasdaq Composite Index rallied 3.5%.

Index	Jan. 11, 2019, close	Day	Week	Year to Date
S&P/TSX Composite	14,939.18	0.2%	3.55%	4.30%
S&P 500 Composite	2,596.26	0.0%	2.54%	3.57%
Nasdaq Composite	6,971.48	-0.2%	3.45%	5.07%
Gold (US$)	$1,288.20	0.1%	0.14%	0.66%
Oil (WTI) (US$)	$51.62	-1.0%	7.10%	13.68%

FUND NEWS

* RBC and BlackRock form ETF alliance. RBC Global Asset Management Inc. and BlackRock Asset Management Canada Limited announced on Jan. 8 a strategic alliance that will bring the ETF lineups offered by both companies together under a new brand to be named RBC iShares. With $60 billion in assets under management, the new combined lineup will be the largest in Canada with a total of 150 ETFs: 106 index funds managed by BlackRock Canada, and 44 index, smart beta, and actively managed funds managed by RBC GAM Inc. Five RBC ETFs will be merged into similar iShares ETFs. Complete details of the proposed changes can be found in the RBC press release.

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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.