Weekly Financial Market Update - February 15, 2019

All three major U.S. stock indexes ended the week with positive gains. The Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced 3.1% to record its eighth consecutive week of gains, its best stretch since 2009. Stock markets have been buoyed in recent weeks by signaling from the Federal Reserve of a pause in interest rate hikes and easing trade tensions between the U.S. and China.

President Trump declared a national emergency in a bid to fund his promised wall at the U.S.-Mexico border without congressional approval. He was also expected to sign a bipartisan government spending bill Congress approved that would prevent another partial government shutdown by funding several agencies that otherwise would have closed this weekend. President Trump made no direct mention of the funding bill, but House Democrats planned to introduce legislation to block his move, which could pass both houses if it wins the votes of the half-dozen Republican senators who criticized the planned declaration. 

Learn more about the trade war between the U.S. and China, U.S. headline consumer prices and December retail sales in our Weekly Financial Update.