A Slow Week For The S&P 500 In Week 4 Of May 2018

As expected, stock prices gapped up to start the fourth week of May 2018 thanks to a deal between the U.S. and China to not impose new tariffs on each other's goods, but beyond that move, didn't do very much else during the rest of the week.

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Then again, that might have been expected too for a week preceding a long holiday weekend in the U.S., which not uncoincidentally, made for a pretty slow news week.

Monday, 21 May 2018

• Oil rallies to multi-year highs on Venezuela worries
• Fed's Bostic repeats U.S. close to Fed's inflation, employment goals
  • Fed's Harker looking for sustained U.S. inflation near target
  • Harker could back 3 more Fed rate hikes in face of U.S. inflation
• Wall St. rises on trade war truce; industrials lead

Tuesday, 22 May 2018

• Oil rises towards $80 as supply concerns mount
• Trump says not pleased with how trade talks went with China
• U.S. stock buybacks in earnings season top $183 billion: TrimTabs
• Wall St. slips on U.S.-China trade talk uncertainty; energy falls

Wednesday, 23 May 2018

• Oil falls on shock U.S. stock builds, OPEC supply worries
• Trump calls for new 'structure' for U.S.-China trade deal
  • China's Sinopec to boost U.S. crude imports to all-time high: sources
  • U.S.-China trade row sows confusion in farmer planting plans
• Trump blasts Mexico, Canada over NAFTA talks
• U.S. new home sales fall in April, housing market treading water
• Wall St. ends up as Fed seen keeping gradual approach to rate hikes
  • Most Fed policymakers say rate hike likely needed 'soon,' minutes show

Thursday, 24 May 2018

• Fed could end tightening cycle in 2019: Harker on CNBC
• Tight supply weighs on U.S. home sales; job market strengthening
• China plans to cut import tariffs on some consumer goods from July 1: Bloomberg
• Wall Street dips after Trump cancels North Korea summit; Netflix gains
• Wall St. ends down slightly on trade, oil price concerns

Friday, 25 May 2018

• Fed faces 'agonizing' debate as rates near neutral level: Kaplan
  • Fed's Kaplan 'hopeful' rate-setting tweak will address issue
• S&P 500 companies return $1 trillion to shareholders in tax-cut surge
  • U.S. business spending on equipment improving
• S&P, Dow fall as oil drop hurts energy; chipmakers boost Nasdaq

Elsewhere, Barry Ritholtz identified the week's <a data-cke-saved-href="http://ritholtz.com/2018/05/succinct-summation-weeks-events-5-25-18/%20target=" href="http://ritholtz.com/2018/05/succinct-summation-weeks-events-5-25-18/%20target=" _blank"="" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 99, 66);">positives and negatives for the U.S. economy and markets.