“I always define my risk, and I don’t have to worry about it.” – Tony Saliba

1. France ‘Yellow Vest’ Protests Flare Anew — as a series of national French debates on government policy ended last week, “Yellow Vest” protesters celebrated their 18th weekend with violence on the streets of Paris. More than 80 businesses on the Champs-Elysees were vandalized or torched, with an estimated 10,000 people participating in the demonstrations. The protests have shaved 0.2 percentage points off economic growth since they started, Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said in late February.
2. Apple is Poised to Unveil its Long-Rumored TV Service — Apple is poised to unveil its long-rumored TV service, and ahead of the event, Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) confirmed it won’t be joining the company’s streaming offering. “While Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) is a great company, we prefer to let our customers watch our content on our service,” CEO Reed Hastings told reporters at the company’s offices in Hollywood.
3. The U.S. Air Force Outlined a Five-Year Plan to Bring back Boeing’s F-15 Fighter — the U.S. Air Force has outlined a five-year plan that showed the extent of the Pentagon’s push to bring back Boeing’s (NYSE:BA) F-15 fighter in an upgraded version. The $7.8B investment would see a jump in eight of the planes next year to 18 each year through 2024. While Lockheed Martin’s (NYSE:LMT) F-35 would get $37.5B over the five years, the more advanced plane would still take a hit (48 F-35s are planned to be purchased each year from fiscal 2021-2023 instead of the 54 previously planned).
4. Britain Says EU Could Offer Brexit extension — the European Union decided to give the United Kingdom an extension on negotiating an exit from the EU – but it won’t be a long reprieve if UK Prime Minister Theresa May can’t get a win in Parliament. European Council President Donald Tusk said Article 50 would be extended to May 22 if Parliament can reach a withdrawal agreement next week; but failing that, the deadline is extended only to April 12.
5. FOMC Meeting Announcement — the Fed decided to hold interest rates steady, as expected, and indicated it would keep rates at current levels for the rest of 2019. The central bank currently holds its benchmark funds rate in a range of 2.25 percent to 2.5 percent. Speaking after the Fed’s decision, Powell said that weakening Chinese and European economies are acting as a deterrent to growth at home even as policymakers see the overall outlook in the U.S. as good. Fed Chairman Jerome Powell also announced that the central bank would end the so-called runoff of bonds from its balance sheet sooner than most expected. That caused the yield on the 10-year Treasury to tumble.

The week ahead — Economic data from Econoday.com:

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