Pervasive ‘data collection’ really overshadows OPEC’s limited move to increase production levels (constrained below their aspirations, much as I suggested would be the likely outcome from the Vienna conference). What OPEC really did was reduce the previously agreed production cutbacks and basically it was lower when ‘guesstimated’; hence the Oil rally we had suspected would ensue. That definitely helped Friday’s market rebound.
Those issues plus the President’s latest ‘tweet’ threatening ‘broad tariffs’, of 20%, on ALL cars exported to the USA from the EU, swung markets on Friday; with our suspected Oil and Oil stock strength after OPEC, masking a lot of the otherwise-heavy (and rightfully jittery) markets. FANG stocks, for the most part, rebounded for prior slightly heavy selling on ‘sales tax’ news earlier; and then faded later in the day (only a short-squeeze).
Certainly there’s was a tendency not to press the upside (absence of bids) into a political weekend too; as here you have Sunday’s Turkish elections (probably rigged as best dictator Erdogan can), and continued turmoil that isn’t really news in Italy; but nevertheless no incentive for traders to extend risks on such a Friday. (Erdogran ordered ‘no’ opposition candidates could be on TV or purchase advertising in the final week… how balanced.)
Overall we’ve felt rallies were interim anyway and that a sequence of lateral and then declining tops (more so in the DJIA than the S&P) were hinting at an inability to move equity prices forward for a couple weeks. In a sense a vast majority of stocks are barely changed for the year overall.
The ‘data aggregation’ issue itself threatens to emerge anew from Friday’s Supreme Court decision, which superficially touches only on police crime suspicion warrant-less tracking of a cellphone but we think goes further at least in potential implication. The implications should be far wider and as I have mentioned before, there’s now pushback on the Googles, Amazons and Facebooks of the world being so intrusive in tracking our lives.
