Weekly Market Review - April 3, 2018

Chad Hassinger |
Categories
Finance

By Bradley J. Rathe
Chief Investment Officer

April 3, 2018

“The first half of life consists of the capacity to enjoy without the chance; the last half consists of the chance without the capacity." Mark Twain

Weekly look back:
  1. Stocks rallied on the final day of the first quarter, however finished the quarter lower for the first time since 2015. The main concerns are with tariffs and technology.
  2. The final GDP reading for Q4 2017 received a boost to an annualized rate of 2.9%. Despite Retail Sales lagging recently, the Consumer Spending inside GDP was strong so we still expect a boost in Retail sales in the coming months.
  3. Confidence numbers are still running at peak levels. Tax cuts have increased the current outlook, however some of the recent policy moves have dampened future expectations.
Weekly look ahead:
  1. Expectations for Friday's jobs report is for 175k new jobs down from 303k last month. Despite the reasonable job creation, the more important part of the report is hourly earnings growth and outlook is for a concerning .3% advance. Too big of a number will stoke inflation fears. 
  2. ISM manufacturing posted a small pullback for the reading concerning the markets that we may be reversing the strong upward trend. Later in the week ISM Non-Manufacturing (Services) is expected to have a small decrease as well.
  3. Durable Goods orders had an impressive strength last month and Factory orders reporting this week are expected to be strong as well.
World Macro highlights for this week: 

Monday: Construction Spending, ISM Manufacturing
Wednesday: ISM Non-Manufacturing, Factory Orders, PMI Services
Friday: US Employment Situation

Graph Of The Week

Many of the policy changes coming out of Washington are hopeful to bring back manufacturing to the United States. This will be a central number to watch to see if effective. 

 

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.