Week in Review

Published on: 08/6/18 3:20 PM

Category: Uncategorised

The weekly international trade market was dominated by the Apple company’s record-breaking earning headlines. Earlier in the week, CEO Tim Cook announced exceptional earnings, making Apple the world’s first trillion-dollar company. The earnings report exceeded analysts predictions and many financial experts put the accomplishment on par with the major indices hitting record milestones, such as the DOW breaking the 20,000 barrier. Although the accomplishment is something that the Apple executives should tout, it does not negate the promising moves of Amazon in its quest to overtake Apple as the world’s leader of innovative technology.

While the news of Apple’s earnings dominated headlines, the growing concern over the impending trade war continued to pick up steam. United States President Donald Trump directed the nation’s trade representative to research the implications of implementing a 25 percent tariff on a wide range of over $200 billion in Chinese imports. The previously stated directive would have just taxed the goods at a rate of 10 percent. The hint of an even greater increase in tariff rates prompted the Chinese government to announce on Friday that it would impose an additional $60 billion on US imports as an act of retaliation against the aggressive moves by the US government. This new number would bring the total to almost the amount of all US goods from the previous trading year (approximately $130 billion). Larry Kudlow, President Trump’s Chief Economic Adviser, used a press conference to state his opinion that an economic slowdown in China will play positively into the hands of the US. With the recent drop in the value of the Yuan, Kudlow made the bold move of commenting on another nation’s economic stability by indicating that the Chinese financial markets are at risk for destabilization.

The end of the week also brought about the much-anticipated July jobs report. Although the addition of 157,000 jobs did not meet the expected number of 193,000, the rest of the report contained enough promising news to pick up the slack. Chief among the most positive news was the unemployment rate dropping to 3.9 percent.

In world currency news, the US dollar inched up to a critical lag resistance. Across the pond, the Euro and the Pound broke lower. And down under, the Kiwi and the Aussie remained charged. These two currencies could see action this coming week as both the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) and Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) are expected to provide monetary policy updates.