Overview

• Attention over the past week has been focused on the corona virus as Chinese factories attempted to reopen. As a sign of cautious optimism, U.S. stocks overall rose for the second week in a row.
• The Information Technology sector of the U.S. market rose by 0.49%. This growth is thought to be spurred in part by the news of new wearable technology and Chime's partnership with Verse.io.
• The core personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index increased approximately 1.6% which is short of the expected 2%. At this point in time, it's unknown if this will spur the Fed into action or not.
• As of last week, 85% of companies have reported their Q4 earnings. It was noted that "the financial, healthcare, utility and tech sectors have done particularly well" but there was negative growth in the industrial and energy sectors.

Monday – February 17, 2020

• Trading was very light for the U.S. as the U.S. markets were closed due to the Presidents Day holiday.
• Many stocks are expected to decline due to poor earnings reports for Q4 and YoY that are expected to be released in the upcoming weeks. Some of these are HALO, SAIL, ITRI, and APY.