Weekly Market Commentary 1/5/2018

The proverbial Santa rally may have arrived a bit late, but it entered 2018 with a bang, sending stock prices sharply higher on the heels of last year’s blockbuster performance. With the bulls still in the ascendancy, an air of optimism is permeating the markets. How long it lasts is open to question, but the upbeat mind-set of the risk-on investors is receiving a good deal of support on the economic front. Indeed, the opening week of the year stands in stark contrast to a year ago, when stock prices plunged nearly 10% during the first week, reversing the entire post-election surge and then some.