Major Markets

The major markets all closed in the green again for the final full week of February. This marks the fifth consecutive week of gains for the S&P 500. This represents the longest consecutive weekly gains since March of last year.

While the Dow hasn’t had as many consecutive weekly gains, it has managed to have a remarkable 12 positive days in a row as of Monday’s close. This is the longest winning streak since 1987.

Energy Continues to Fall…

However, beneath the surface, not everything was positive as the S&P 500 Energy sector registered another loss for the week.  This is the longest string of consecutive weekly losses since the summer of 2015’s long 14-week trek down.
Natural Gas weighed on the sector again last week as it fell another 5.55% for the shorten trading week.

Meanwhile, Precious Metals favored well as Gold closed out with a gain of 1.56% while Silver ended slightly higher with a gain of 1.68%.

What’s next for the Fed?

The FOMC minutes released last week pointed to an upcoming rate hike with the excerpt:

“many participants expressed the view that it might be appropriate to raise the federal funds rate again fairly soon if incoming information on the labor market and inflation was in line with or stronger than their current expectations or if the risks of overshooting the Committee’s maximum-employment and inflation objectives increased”

However, the CME Group’s Fed Watch Tool still points to the next likely rate increase to be either in May or June rather than at the upcoming March meeting.