The US-China trade tension has once again peaked its head out and put pressure on an already skittish market. Earlier in the week, the Senate passed a bill that would make it more difficult for Chinese companies to list on US stock exchanges. That in itself wasn't enough to curb the weekly rally for the major indexes that will see the DOW, S&P 500, and NASDAQ post weekly gains of +2.8% or better, bouncing back from last weeks losses.
On a daily level, the market will end the week on weak trading heading into the long holiday weekend. Part of the muted market action today is due to China releasing drafted legislation overnight that shows new national security measures in Hong Kong after last year's burst of anti-government protests in the city. That law is expected to increase Beijing's hold over Hong Kong. China also opted against setting a GDP target for 2020 as the coronavirus batters the second-largest economy in the world.
Even with all of the optimism around the US economy reopening, we can't forget about the job loss numbers. On Thursday, the US Labor Department's weekly report on initial jobless claims showed another 2.438 million individuals filed for unemployment insurance claims last week, bringing the nine-week total for new claims to more than 38 million. Continuing jobless claims hit a fresh record high of more than 25 million, as of the week ended May 8.
As for the other markets we track, three of them will post weekly losses. The US dollar will post a weekly loss of -.5%, and gold is looking at a .-7% loss, and Bitcoins run is over with a weekly loss of -2.7% or so.
Crude oil continues to climb, posting its fourth straight week of gains with a weekly increase of +10%.
Key Levels To Watch Next Week:
- S&P 500 (CME:SP500): 2,766.64
- Dow (INDEX:DJI): 24,718.46
- NASDAQ (NASDAQ:COMP): 8,537.83
- U.S. Dollar (ICE:DX): 100.48
- Gold (NYMEX:GC.Q20): 1,765.30
- Crude Oil (NYMEX:CL.N20): 34.00
- Bitcoin (BITCOIN:BITSTAMPUSD): 10,500.50
Every Success,
Jeremy Lutz
INO.com and MarketClub.com
