Market commentary, 1st Quarter 2017
17 April 2017
Markets were generally up across the board as improving prospects for global growth encouraged investors to take more risks. U.S. stocks were up 6.07% on continued market enthusiasm for proposed lower taxes and regulatory rollback. A weaker dollar and higher corporate earnings contributed to emerging market stocks rising by 11.45%. The Federal Reserve increased the benchmark short-term interest rate by 25 basis points after inflation continued to rise and employment data continued to improve. Mutual fund and exchange-traded fund investors increased their holdings of stocks and decreased their holdings of bonds. For the quarter, stocks had a net inflow of $82.3 billion while bonds had a net outflow of $6.5 billion. Total money market mutual fund assets decreased by $70 billion to $2.7 trillion. Total employment increased by 533,000 jobs this quarter, and unemployment fell from 4.9% to 4.5%. The price of oil fell from $54 to $51 a barrel through the quarter.