It was Groundhog Day (week) for US and New Zealand equity markets with both reaching new all-time highs last week, continuing their impressive start to the year. In the US, the Dow posted its fifth weekly gain over the last six, while the Nasdaq has recorded its sixth consecutive weekly gain.

In New Zealand, the NZX50 rose more than 2% last week to an all-time high around 11,800.

What’s happening in markets

The good run for equities came on the back of trade optimism and some robust data.

On Wednesday, the US and China signed the deal to ease tensions. China has pledged to buy US$200 billion of goods and strengthen various intellectual property rules. In exchange, the US has agreed to reduce some of the new tariffs it has imposed on some Chinese products. Furthermore, markets were buoyed after Congress passed a revised trade deal between the US, Mexico and Canada.

Bolstering sentiment was an upbeat US inflation reading, a better-than-expected Philadelphia Fed Manufacturing Index and solid consumer sentiment data.

Meanwhile, in New Zealand, there was a slight improvement in business confidence with the NZIER quarterly survey results topping expectations.

However, it wasn’t all good news. On Friday, China reported an annual growth rate of 6.1%, the slowest in nearly 30 years.

What’s on the calendar

It’s a relatively busy week for markets, despite US markets being closed on Monday in observance of Martin Luther King Jr Day.

We will see two central bank meetings with the People’s Bank of China and the European Central Bank’s set to meet. The PBOC is likely to ease monetary policy as the world’s second-largest economy continues to slow. For the ECB, the focus will be on central bank strategy under new president, Christine Lagarde.

The Bank of Canada and Norway’s central bank are also set to meet.