Trade Tensions Ease but Military Strikes Begin in the Weekly Market Update by Valeo Financial Advisors (April 14, 2018)
April 14, 2018    Disclosures    POSTED IN  InvestmentsEconomyMarkets

Trade tensions began to ease after last week’s mounting tariff dispute between the U.S. and China; President Trump even went so far as to request his top advisers look into rejoining the Trans-Pacific Partnership on Thursday. Shortly after the presumable good news on the global trade front, the President announced and has now executed a joint military strike against the Assad regime in Syria with the U.K. and France targeting facilities associated with chemical weapons capabilities for the country. The President exclaimed this would be a sustained operation until chemical weapon use stopped while no additional strikes are planned as of now according to Defense Secretary Mattis.

Global equity markets had a favorable week given the calming trade disputes and U.S. domestic markets get prepared for what is expected to be one of the best earnings seasons on record; however, several financial stocks kicked it off on Friday without being the catalyst many market analysts predicted. Sanctions on one of the largest aluminum producers in Russia has sent the price of the commodity sky high, coupled with oil’s multi-year high, has lifted the battered commodity index over 3% this week. Whether the developing actions in the Middle East will have a lasting effect on markets is so far unknown.

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