Weekly Market Recap Sep 16, 2018

Slow and steady drip up all this past week in a very quiet news environment. A gap down top open the day Tuesday (which was recovered quickly) and a gap up Thursday (which held) were the highlights!

The latest on TRADE WARS!(tm):

Tuesday, news hit that China vowed to retaliate and plans to ask the World Trade Organization next week for permission to impose sanctions on the U.S. for Washington’s noncompliance with a ruling in a dispute over U.S. dumping duties, Reuters reported. That’s part of a dispute that goes back to 2013.

“Trade wars are certainly a concern, but I don’t know that they’re a one-moment-in-time thing. So far we’ve looked past them, but over the longer term a trade war could be very damaging,” said Richard Weeks, managing partner at VWG Wealth Management. Despite that, Weeks said he remained cautiously optimistic about stocks. “Between high corporate profits, stock buybacks, and muted interest rates, there’s still an underlying bid to the market no matter how you slice it. There are still plenty of things to be concerned about, but there aren’t enough reasons to be too pessimistic,” he said.

The U.S. economy grew at a “moderate pace” even though there were pockets of weaker activity in certain districts, according to the latest Beige Book released Wednesday. Trade concerns and a lack of workers are also delaying projects, the report said.

For the week the S&P 500 gained 1.2% and the NASDAQ 1.4%.