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The stock market continued the ‘Trump Rally’ in December, although it did lose some steam in the final week. The Canadian market gained 1.4%, driven almost entirely by the Financial sector. U.S. stocks also continued to move higher, but the big winners were the European stocks with the Stoxx50 up 7.8% in December alone, although it was still down 6.2% for the full year. The biggest gainers for all of 2016 included Brazil (+39%), Russia (+24%) and Canada (+18%). Clearly the commodity-based economies made a comeback after five dismal years. The Financial sector was the biggest contributor to the stock market in Canada last month, gaining 3.2% to account for almost all of the market’s gains in December. Utility stocks also bounced back (+2.6%) as did preferred shares, which gained 3.6% for the month. For all of 2016, the Energy sector was the big winner, gaining over 36% after two tough years in 2014-15. Golds were also strong despite weakness in the 2nd half of the year. The Gold sub-index was up 50% in 2016. Health Care was the biggest laggard, dragged down by weakness in Valeant. That sector fell 44% in 2016.