(New York)

This market is going against all precedent. December is usually a strong month for stocks, with momentum usually dominating trading. However, everyone knows this month has been brutal, continuing the strong volatility and losses that have plagued the market since October. The same old problems are dogging the market too—rising rates, a trade war, and the threat of recession. What has really gotten worse is that part of the rate curve has inverted, which seems to have really spooked investors globally. Last week the S&P 500 saw it worst performance since March, falling 4.6% for the week.

FINSUM: Here is a question for our audience: what is going to stop this market from falling? There are so many factors pushing the market down, none of them easy to resolve. This makes us worry that there is no floor on prices right now. Even the Trump-Xi “truce” didn’t save things.

(Brussels)

So far Brexit has been the complete mess everyone expected. The whole deal looks like it is hurdling towards a chaotic no-deal departure. Parliament looks very likely to reject PM May’s deal, a vote on which she has delayed in order to save face. However, the EU has just extended a major olive branch by virtue of its judiciary. The top EU court just ruled that the UK can unilaterally back out of Brexit at any time despite the fact that they have formally enacted Article 50, or the official leaving process from the EU.

FINSUM: All they have to do is hold a Parliamentary vote or second referendum and this whole mess would be over. IT is a long way from something that simple happening.

(San Francisco)

Amidst all the gloom gripping the markets, there have been a handful of positive publications about 2019. One of them was just put out by Nomura. The bank published a list of 5 tech stocks that might surge in 2019. The call is an ambitious one given the trend of how tech shares have been going. The shares are not all FAANGs either, which makes them more interesting. With further ado, the list is: Google, Amazon, Salesforce, Broadcom, and AT&T.

FINSUM: Amazon seems like a good call to us, especially after its recent declines. The company is going to see increasing margins as it consolidates its dominant position and earns more recurring revenue. Salesforce is also an interesting business.

(Washington)

Markets plunged on Tuesday, at least partly because of fears over the fragility of the US-China truce on trade. China tried to bolster belief in a deal this week by publicly reaffirming its commitment. However, any hopes of a trade agreement took a definitive nose dive today as the CFO of Chinese giant Huawei was arrested in Canada at the US’ request. Futures markets dove so sharply on the news that the CME had to stop trading for a period.

FINSUM: This could be a very wild day. Market are off to a rough start this morning, but the mood in the afternoon will be the big test of sentiment, in our opinion.

(Houston)

Oil has been whipsawing all over the place lately. For the last several weeks, oil has mostly fallen, with some short term big rallies along the way. One of those was just a couple days ago when Saudi Arabia and Russia announced an agreement to cut output. However, the bottom has fallen out of the commodity as Saudi Arabia’s energy minister announced that he would only favor a small cut. This led to big doubts about whether the efforts will actually lower supply, sending prices spiraling down 5%.

FINSUM: This seems to be a direct consequence of the US’ ability to boost its production to offset any declines by OPEC. Accordingly, Saudi Arabia doesn’t want to lower its revenue by cutting only for the US to take advantage.