Sorry for the late reply. I think we are looking for oil to stabilize first. We might see a decent upward trend after Q1 next year. The issue is that oil has slid because they don't see it rising in the near term.

I think the creative solution is to reverse the whole trade war and come to a few agreements that China will do more to allow foreign competition in their market. Sadly the trade war was started over deficit imbalances which should never be the central issue, especially since the US buys a lot of goods from China to add value and sell their own products. Agreed, if Trump fails the next President is likely to do this. It will benefit them and the economy and is easy to do without the rhetoric Trump feels he needs to "win" something when no one really wins in a full on trade war.

The US certainly can't afford to bail them out and China can't either because they need their reserves to support their currency and domestic debt balloon. Clearly the EU is helping the EU nations, however this will end badly. The EU isn't a paradigm of strength either.

I think the market is looking for something to happen to show a clearer long term direction more than anything else. It may not be bad.

I think this is more them playing the market volatility between trend lines more than anything else.

Tech buying back shares to support their stock rarely goes as expected and is usually a bad indicator unless they are growing and profitable as well. It is often done to mask a downturn in demand which is often caused by a change in their market for the worst.

Sadly #Trump news has obviously moved stocks which is apparent to all. Worse yet, they are being disclosed via a private twitter account which is unfair to many. A rule should be made to curb this.

Even if it could the sad fact is there will be a lot of destruction to oil production even if there is a limited war.

Indeed negative rates are bad news. Trump doesn't know what he is talking about when talking about currency or rates.

The economy is weaker due to tariff wars and a slow global economy. However, I think many perceptions of the weakness is overdone. The weaker manufacturing numbers are more manufacturing which has done badly during the Trump Presidency. Sadly he doesn't realize that most of our manufacturing comes from importing cheaper things overseas and making higher brand name equipment here. Higher steel prices makes us less competitive not more competitive. Sadly, US steel workers are hurting because it is slowing the business of their clients who are now cutting back.

This is a way to export manufacturing and kill the US not the other way around.