• On Wednesday, the Fed announced starting January, they would reduce the bond-buying program of $85 billion to $75 billion a month. $35 billion of the bond buying program will be of agency mortgage-backed securities and the other $40 billion will be of longer-term Treasuries.
• US equity market was up for the first time in three weeks as the Fed proposed their flexible plan to begin tapering as long as inflation remains low.
• The Fed also stated they are committed to keeping the key policy rate at zero “well past” the time unemployment rate reaches 6.5%.
• Gold closed the week at $1,203.24 per ounce on Friday, down 3% for the week and 36% from its all-time high in September 0f 2011.
• For the week, small-cap stocks outperformed large-cap stocks while large-cap value stocks outperformed large-cap growth.
• All sectors were positive for the week with industrials and materials as the top performers and telecom services and consumer staples as the worst performing sectors.
• For the week ending 12/20/13, the S&P 500 gained 2.42% closing at 1818.32. The MSCI EAFE Index gained 2.55% closing at 1864.94 and the MSCI EM Index dropped -0.22% to end the week at 988.26.
