Weekly Market Recap Apr 14, 2019

It was generally a quiet week as not much progress or rumor on the “Chinese – U.S. trade deal” happened.  Four days of consolidation followed by a gap up Friday on strong bank earnings pre market (along with Disney news).  Markets also got a lift Friday from trade data released by China that showed March exports rose 14.2% from a year earlier versus forecasts calling for a rise of 8.7% and after a sharp drop in February. That said, imports were flagging, reflecting soft domestic demand and the growth spurt in exports may not be sustained.

On Wednesday the minutes of the last Federal Reserve meeting were released and it was dovish of course:

The Federal Reserve’s decision in March to cease raising interest rates this year was driven by unease over the U.S. and global economies and surprisingly subdued inflation, according to minutes of the pivotal central bank meeting.

“A majority of participants expected that the evolution of the economic outlook and risks to the outlook would likely warrant leaving the target range unchanged for the remainder of the year,” the minutes said.

Willie Delwiche, investment strategist with R.W. Baird said: “The Fed is trying to be transparent and say ‘we’re going to be on hold right now and we are going to give what we’ve done over the past two years time to settle and see what happens. The market seems to think that if you are tilting toward a ‘wait and see policy’ you are actually preparing for rate cuts this year.”

For the week, the S&P 500 gained 0.5% and the NASDAQ 0.6%.

Here is the 5 day weekly intraday chart of the S&P 500 … not via Jill Mislinski.