Indeed you did, easy trades too, especially 29th, 1st & 2nd... if you got in the right direction it was a one way trip with no reversal to trip your glide to large 200pt chunks profits (or one 600pt trade perfect for set & forget on a trailing stop- $60k if I understand your trading style)
Friday's headline job number (unemployment lowest in 50years) exited everybody, particularly the bots. Ethiopia closed markets at their high, unusual for a Friday, but Asia has instead looked under the hood and focused on the US industrial sector which lost 2,000 jobs while the consensus was for 3,000 new jobs to be added (a 5,000 gap). US futures gapped down 200pts (DOW) at the open despite many Asian markets being closed Monday. Also of a potential problem is Trump's reaction to the WTO consent to impose tariffs on some EU items... Trump charged like a bull and immediately imposed the tariffs instead of using the WTO ruling as a thread in negotiating that the EU buy more US goods. With so much being focused on Trade with China, many have overlooked that the bulk cause of the US slowdown is not China bying $50b less but the EU buying $150b less from the US. I think Trump was rather shortsighted in this instance and has missed an opportunity to pressure the EU in helping the US better manage its slowdown and perhaps in helping the US achive its goals with China.
Which part is "no" the overlooked part or the $150b compared to $50b part? Or, you agree that Trump should impose the tariff immediately rather than use the threat of tariff to negotiate? (you are aware that tariffs are a tax on the American consumer aren't you? Tariffs are not paid by the exporing country).
The overlooked part is that it is not the piddly bits of 150 bil of EU buying our expensive shit vs China buying 50 bil of our expensive shit. That the EU is buying 150 bill less of our shit is irrelevant. It is that the tariffs on CHINA are going to cause us to buy a lot less of the hundreds of billions of dollars of cheep shit we normally buy each year. The supply chain of the entire world is directly linked through China and the USA. You break that chain, and the world is in a world-of-supply-shit that has been established over decades. It WILL sink the world economy. Why does nobody else see this? Oi!
Are you assuming China is the only place that can manufacture cheap "shit"? it isn't, but it's the place that has a state central polity to leapfrog developed countries by stealing their IP and forcing joint ventures that automatically transfers IP. I'm all in favour of the supply chain moving away from China to other more ethical places, and no, it won't sink the world because China hardly buy anything from anybody except raw materials it does not have and the high-level machines used to produce the shit they produce and they'll continue to buy that no matter what. Why China produces shit? a) because America buys it b) they spend nothing on R&D, if they can't steal new technology, they'll continue to produce without upgrading until they can steal it. That is why their shit is so cheap, there is no R&D component (which can cost more than the product) to pay. Most contry's governments give R&D grants, not China, the party supports the criminals that steal other's R&D. That's their economic advantage and they won't give it up easily, why you think Trump can't bring them to negotiate this? so, isolate them, move the supply chains, this will starve China of new IP.
It is not about THEM, it is about US. And by US I mean us, in the USA. Who cares about all of this is the USA consumer. If the US consumer starts to see the cost of widgets go up, they will buy less widgets. And no country in the world can make shit as cheep as China. Then the domino effect starts. ONE MAN.
Why exactly buying fewer widgets made in China affect the US economy to the point that the USA goes into recession? I don't follow this angle. Besides, a widget made in Vietnam, Thailand or India, might be marginally more costly but surely of better quality... I don't have a problem with that, especially if the original widget was an American invented/designed product that the Chinese stole. I have no issues with paying 10% more for a product made in a country that respects IP and pays a royalty to the inventor/designer. I don't even have an issue paying 20% more for a product made in my own country because I am assured that it does not contain mercury or led or has been diluted, and also meets the safety standards. Some of the shit China exports should not be in stores at all... an obvious knock-off, unsafe, contains banned substances, brakes within a week, even the leads of some electrical items are made of steel thread instead of copper or aluminium (draws more power, overheats melting the insulation). I think most consumers are quite sick of the Chinese shit and more than ready to pay a little more for better quality and for something that meets safety standards. Go to a pre-Nixon era, buy nothing at all from China... so what if inflation goes to 2.5%, the offset is more production in the USA and better quality goods that last 3 times as long and get repaired instead of disposed of.... helps save the environment also. Nixon's intent was for America to sell into China, it backfired badly... China never opened-up its markets to us but instead flooded our market with their stuff that is shit... Nixon is rolling in his grave with the outcome
Well, Powell's speech was as clear as mud but then, that's expected from a guy that hasn't a clue on what he's doing nor even what his mandate is. Bots reacted but the humans didn't like what he said which was that the Fed will remain reactive i.e. remain behind the curve and act when it's too late to have any effect. Trump, on the other hand, is crystal clear on his intentions on trade... just joking! Trump's motto is: "I'll do what I say, no waite, I'll do what I think, no wait that's not it, just wait till I do it then you'll know what I did. Put Nancy into that mix and.... God help America.