The heavily followed men’s NCAA college basketball tournament kicked off this week with a historic upset between the UMBC Retrievers and Virginia Cavaliers, the first 16 seed to ever beat a one seed in the tournament. The Retrievers won in a blowout game 74-54 to make history and change the 0-135 record 16 seeds held against one seeds. Additionally in the week, President Trump had more shakeups in his administration personnel and economic data poured in prior to next weeks Federal Reserves Open Market Committee meeting where market participants are pricing in a 94.4% probability of a Fed Funds rate increase.

Quadruple witching day, as its called, occurred Friday the 16th which is when simultaneous expiration of stock index futures, stock index options, single stock futures and stock options happen. This phenomena occurs four times a year and generally increases trading volume significantly and although domestic equities ended higher Friday, they were down for the week. International markets likewise went lower in the trading week; however, fixed income investments provided some resilience. The treasury yield curve experienced moderate flattening, when short term rates increase and longer term rates decline – boosting prices on the long end.

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