New privacy regulation came into effect yesterday the 25th as the EU begins enforcement of the GDPR, or General Data Protection Regulation. Trade talks remain a focus on market participants as policymakers push for China to reduce its trade surplus with the U.S. by $200 billion by the end of 2020. President Trump announced in a tweet this week, the June 12 scheduled meeting in Singapore with North Korean leader, Kim Jong Un, would be cancelled. The President later announced the nations have been in contact and had productive conversation about reinstating the Summit likely to be scheduled for the same time and place.

U.S. equity markets ended the week modestly higher before the long holiday weekend while international developed stocks fell off track; the latter are now negative YTD. In addition to trade talks moving markets, interest rates remain a strong catalyst for investor action. The very minor decline in rates helped alleviate bond declines, although core fixed income investments are still negative YTD. Commodities continue to perform well on a trailing one year basis, led by oils impressive rally in 2018. Real estate, being negatively effected by interest rates YTD, returned greater than 2% during the week.

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