Markets performed relatively well this week, despite Category 4 tropical storm Harvey continuing to wreak havoc along the Southern coast and pouring record levels of rain.
The flood in Texas, which happens to be a major oil producing state, caused a significant number of oil refineries to cease operation, and as a result, gasoline price turned volatile. Besides the immediate mayhem, Harvey prompted investors to assess its impact on the U.S. economy due to the potential of rising oil prices in the coming months.
Bulls lost enthusiasm earlier in the week after Moody’s cut U.S. growth forecast for 2018 to 2.3% on Monday. However, when the Q2 GDP beat forecasts by 0.2% later in the week, it turned out to be business as usual in the equities markets with the Dow Jones inching back towards the 22,000 level.
In the midst of Hurricane Harvey, President Trump had to deal with North Korea firing a test missile, which caused widespread panics in Japan, where authorities in northern Hokkaido island ended up warning people to evacuate to their basements. Thankfully, markets paid almost no immediate attention to the escalating threat from the tin-pot dictator, Kim Jong-un.
Be sure to check out our previous week’s edition here, in which traders were concerned about the possibility of a government shutdown.
