2025 YTD Portfolio Performance:
My portfolio: +3.43%
S&P500: +1.53%
16/5/25 Market Weekly Outlook:
U.S. stocks recorded strong weekly gains, buoyed by a significant easing of trade tensions between the U.S. and China. After high-level talks in Switzerland, both nations agreed to a 90-day pause on most recently imposed tariffs to allow time for further negotiations. As a result, U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods will be reduced from 145% to 30%, while China’s tariffs on U.S. imports will fall from 125% to 10%. The Nasdaq Composite surged 7.15%, outperforming the S&P 500 and Dow Jones, which climbed 5.27% and 3.41%, respectively.
Investor optimism was further boosted by trade developments involving Saudi Arabia, which agreed to purchase large quantities of AI chips from U.S. companies, supporting gains across the tech sector and helping push indexes above their early-April levels.
Markets were also lifted by encouraging inflation data. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that consumer prices rose at a slower pace than expected in April, with the Consumer Price Index (CPI) up 2.3% year-over-year—below forecasts and the slowest increase since early 2021. Month-over-month, both headline and core CPI rose 0.2%, lower than anticipated.
Additionally, wholesale inflation data was surprisingly soft. The Producer Price Index (PPI) declined 0.5% in April, contradicting expectations for a modest rise. The drop was largely attributed to shrinking margins, suggesting that companies may be absorbing tariff-related costs rather than passing them on to consumers.
However, trade worries resurfaced late in the week. A Bloomberg report indicated that the Trump administration is expected to set new tariff rates for trading partners within the next few weeks, once the current 90-day suspension ends in early July. Inflation concerns also returned after Walmart announced it would raise prices, and the government reported a 0.4% increase in April import prices excluding oil.
That is all I could summarise about what happened in the stock market last week. Have a great weekend!
$VOOV (Vanguard S&P 500 Value ETF)... Show More
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Wed Nov 19 2025 03:26:33 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)
