July 22 2016 Market Minute
The Dow Jones Industrial average hit an all time high earlier this week of 18, 622. The SP500 also hit an all time high of 2, 175. The NASDAQ, 5, 098 is still over 100 points away from its July 2015 high of 5,231.
- MSCI Emerging Markets Index hit YTD highs this week, but well still below 2007 highs.
- US Treasury Yields all moved higher off the previous weeks historic low.
- Oil, Light Sweet Crude, was down for the third week in a row to $43.94.
US Presidential Election Comments:
I took some notes while watching a replay of Donald Trumps election speech. I would prefer to watch, listen, or read what someone actually said as opposed to someone else’s ‘interpretation’ of what they said. I would encourage you to do the same. With this in mind, a couple points stuck out that are not new things Donald Trump has said, but of which I would like to quote here given past ‘Market Minute’ comments.
“…we are going to enforce all trade violations against any country that cheats. This includes stopping China’s outrageous theft of intellectual property along with their illegal product dumping and their devastating currency manipulations. They are the greatest that ever came about, they are the greatest currency manipulators ever.”
For reference, these comments were at about the 56 minute mark of his speech.
In dollar terms, i.e. amount of US$, this is true. Keep in mind, that all countries cheat and manipulate their currency. China just cheats more, and manipulates more, than any other country does right now. This cheating and manipulation has contributed to China’s tremendous economic success over the last 20 years. It is not because of this cheating and manipulation that China is successful, however. Their problem is that over time, it has become just one more unsustainable action that they have engaged in that when it is reduced, will adversely affect their future economic success.
Source: Thompson One