Weekly Market Review - April 12, 2018

Chad Hassinger |
Categories
Finance

By Bradley J. Rathe
Chief Investment Officer

April 12, 2018

“I'm a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it." Thomas Jefferson

Weekly look back:
  1. The US jobs report reported weaker numbers than expected but many attributed the lower number to extreme weather during the month.  In contrast, hourly earnings moved up by a strong .3%.
  2. The first quarter equity markets were much more volatile than last year.  There were 23 days with more than a 1% move in the S&P 500 compared with 8 for all of 2017.  In the past when we had a volatile first quarter volatility continued throughout the year, however most years ended positive.
  3. World manufacturing took a leap down last week.  German Industrial production surprised with an extremely weak -1.6% reading.  US Manufacturing readings showed similar weakness.
Weekly look ahead:
  1. Central banks have spent a considerable amount of time talking about the state of inflation.  Reports this week on Consumer and Producer inflation numbers are expected to be moderate and will not give much clues for any changes to the expected three rate rises for 2017.
  2. Earnings do not kick into full gear until the middle of next week.  We are hopeful that fundamentals will start to drive markets but until then geopolitical news and Central banks will be the central driver for volatility.
  3. The Tech sector will be in focus as the Facebook CEO testifies in Washington.
World Macro highlights for this week: 

Tuesday: PPI
Wednesday: CPI, FOMC Minutes
Thursday: Import and Export Prices

Graph Of The Week

Inflation is a major driver of future fed policy.  This week’s readings will give a major inclination of future actions.

 

Unless otherwise expressly indicated, the opinions or views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not reflect, and may differ from, the opinions or views of Strategic Financial Group, LLC or others within Strategic Financial Group, LLC, including its officers, managers, owners, employees or other service providers.