Weekly chart for the S&P 500 index:
The US capital markets had an up and down week and ended mostly flat for the 4 days the stock exchanges were open this week. This week marked the end to the month of March 2018. The S&P 500 closed down 1.4% for the month and is down about 2% YTD and for Q1 2018.
The week was indicative of the quarter - a wild ride for everyone involved. Market swings have been getting more extreme lately, and the intraday moves have been heavily influenced by political news inside the US.
With many changes being implemented by the Trump administration, investors and markets scramble to figure out how changes will impact them and their money. This week was heavily focused on a potential trade war with China, as well as continued drama surrounding Russia activities, though the Trump administration took heavy action by expelling a number of Russian diplomats out of the US. Russia quickly sought to get even, and kicked out a comparable number of US diplomats from Russia.
New tariffs on some imports are already brining some countries to the negotiating table as the US is focused on tightening the heavy import imbalance. The full impact of tax reform and changes to insurance requirements are still being figured out as well.
Of course, cryptocurrencies continued to get beaten down, and all crypto investors will be happy to put Q1 behind them. Bitcoin dipped below 7k and Ethereum dropped below 400. Litecoin was especially slammed as Litecoin Pay announced they are going out of business, sparking fears of scams in this and many other coins.
However, despite all the negative news, the underlying fundamentals and market indicators remain strong and I am cautiously optimistic about a decent return for the remainder of 2018, both in the US capital markets as well as in cryptocurrencies.
Personally, I believe this is a great chance to get some cheap Steem and plan to add a bit more to my position.
Good luck,
Brian