The second week of Trump’s presidency brought more controversy. Early in the week came a 120-day suspension of refugee admissions and a 90-day travel ban from seven predominantly Muslim countries. Friday brought comments suggesting the administration will do away with much of Dodd-Frank and the Department of Labor fiduciary duty. Yet once again, capital markets advanced in a somewhat sleepy fashion. The S&P 500 rose 0.1%. In corporate news, Apple beat earnings expectations, Amazon disappointed, and Snapchat filed for an IPO that would value the company at roughly $25 billion.

Weekly Returns:
S&P 500: 2,297 (+0.1%)
FTSE All-World ex-US: (+0.5%)
US 10 Year Treasury Yield: 2.46% (-0.02%)
Gold: $1,220 (+2.4%)
USD/EUR: $1.078 (+0.8%)

Major Events:

  • Monday – Microsoft issued $17 billion in bonds, in part to help pay for LinkedIn
  • Monday – Walgreen’s and Rite Aid agreed to lower the price Walgreen’s will pay to acquire Rite Aid by $2 billion
  • Tuesday – Deutsche Bank agreed to pay $630 million to settle investigations into Russian equity trades that violated anti-money laundering rules
  • Tuesday – U.S. home ownership rate ticked down to 63.7%, modestly below the historical average of 65%
  • Tuesday – Apple reported sales of $78 billion, exceeding most expectations
  • Thursday – Annual inflation across 35 developed economies rose 1.8%, the most in about two years and close to the target for many countries of around 2%
  • Thursday – Snap Inc. filed for an IPO, saying it would seek a $20-$25 billion valuation
  • Friday – Donald Trump signed executive actions which sets in motion a game plan to scale back Dodd Frank and roll back a Department of Labor rule aimed at creating a fiduciary standard for managing retirement assets

    • Our take:
    Trump’s executive actions on Friday mean there will be significant changes to Dodd-Frank and the recent Department of Labor rule requiring a fiduciary standard for advising on retirement assets. What those changes will be is unclear, but pretty soon we will start to see how much the GOP-majority Congress is able to get signed into law in this deeply contentious period.

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