Overview: Stocks had their best week since November last week, recovering the prior week’s losses. Major indices in both the US and globally were up between 2.5%-3% for the week. The gain was driven by strong earnings from technology companies, decent economic data and perceived developments in China trade talks. In Europe, positive data from manufacturing and Brexit developments helped drive stocks higher. Bond yields were slightly lower for the week with the 10-year ending at 2.59%, about 10 bp lower than the start of the year. Bond returns have been solid with the Bloomberg Barclays Aggregate Index up 1.7% and the Barclays muni index up 1.8% year-to-date. Returns have been led by the non-Treasury sectors as falling risk premiums have aided investment-grade credit and high-yield bond returns.

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Provided by Ivan Gruhl, Chief Investment Officer, HK Financial Services. Sources:  Bloomberg, Pac Global, Goldman Sachs Asset Management (data). Investment advisory services offered through HK Financial Services (HKFS), an Independent Registered Investment Advisor. Commission-based securities products are sold by ProEquities registered representatives and offered through ProEquities, Inc., a Registered Broker-Dealer and member of FINRA and SIPC. Insurance products issued by many highly rated carriers. HKFS, ProEquities and Boyum Barenscheer, PLLP are independent of each other.

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