The second week of April 2018 proved to be just another in a series of noisy weeks in 2018 for the U.S. stock market. Geopolitics, trade and good old fashioned political noise filled the week that was for the S&P 500 (Index: INX), where the ultimate outcome for the week was for the index to close at 2,656.30, up by almost exactly 2% over the previous week's closing value of 2,604.47.
On the whole, aside from the ongoing elevated noise level in the market, the week was unremarkable, as the S&P 500 closed each day within the range that we would expect knowing that investors were focused on the distant future quarter of 2019-Q1.
Speaking of noise, here is the list of news headlines from the second week of trading for April 2018.
- Monday, 9 April 2018
- Tuesday, 10 April 2018
- Oil surges more than 3 percent as trade war fears recede
- Trade Wars:
- China's Xi renews vow to open economy, cut tariffs as U.S. trade row deepens
- White House says China's words encouraging, but need concrete steps
- Fed's Kaplan optimistic very few U.S., China tariffs will take effect
- Less Quantitative Tightening? Projections show Fed could permanently hang on to more U.S. bonds
- Wall Street rises as Chinese president eases trade worries
- Wednesday, 11 April 2018
- Thursday, 12 April 2018
- Friday, 13 April 2018
Writing at The Big Picture, Barry Ritholtz identified the positives and negatives for the U.S. economy and markets in Week 2 of April 2018. Noise made the list twice on the negative side of the week's ledger!