Weekly Financial Market Update March 23, 2018

With a re-emergence of volatility and risk-off sentiment spreading across global markets last week, the S&P 500 Index and Dow Jones Industrial Average fell by 6.0% and 5.7%, respectively last week. 

Last Monday, social media giant Facebook, Inc. led U.S. stocks lower after shares fell 6.8% in the wake of reports that a British political advertising firm gained access to over 50 million users without their consent. As the week progressed, U.S. and European lawmakers called for Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to testify in response to its burgeoning privacy issues.

The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), meeting for the first time last Wednesday under new chairman Jerome Powell’s leadership, raised the central bank’s benchmark rate by 0.25% to a range of 1.50% to 1.75%. The hike was widely anticipated, so most of the market reaction appeared to be related to changes in the FOMC’s so-called dot plot, which serves to indicate FOMC members’ rate path expectations. According to the dot plot, the FOMC’s baseline projection is for three total quarter point hikes in 2018, another three in 2019 and two in 2020.

Learn about these financial developments plus updates from the housing market and how potential litigation against drug makers may impact pharmacutical stocks in our latest Weekly Market Update below. 

https://www.atgtrust.com/content/upload/3/root/weekly-2018-03231.pdf