Week of May 19 2017 Weekly Recap & The Week Ahead
“Investors tend to confuse short-term volatility with long-term risk. The longer the time period, the lower the risk of holding equities. People focus too much on the short term, week-to-week and month-to-month price changes, and don’t pay enough attention to the long-term potential.” — Richard Driehaus
1. Saudi Arabia and Russia Agreed to Crude Production Cut — Saudi Arabia and Russia, the world’s top two producers, said that a crude production cut would be extended from the middle of this year until March 2018. While the output cut will initially be on the same volume terms as before, they hope other producers will join in their efforts. OPEC is due to meet in Vienna on May 25.
2. Ford Planning Major Job Cuts — Looking to boost profits and its sliding stock price, Ford (NYSE:F) plans to slash its global workforce (currently 200K) by about 10%, WSJ reported. The job cuts are expected to be outlined as early as this week. Ford shares have suffered during CEO Mark Fields’s three-year tenure and the company’s market value has slipped far behind those of Tesla (TSLA) and General Motors (NYSE:GM).
3. Brazil Sinks Deeper Into Political Crisis — a fresh political crisis is hitting Brazil, reminiscent of last year’s impeachment saga, following reports that President Temer was secretly recorded discussing hush money pay-offs to a jailed associate. According to Brazil’s O Globo, the tapes were presented to prosecutors as part of a plea bargain by Joesley and Wesley Batista, brothers who run the country’s biggest meat-packing firm JBS.
4. Greece Adopts More Austerity Measures — Greece’s parliament has approved a raft of fresh austerity measures, including pension cuts and tax hikes sought by the nation’s foreign creditors. The step paves the way for eurozone finance ministers to clear the next disbursement of funds to Athens when they meet to discuss ways to lighten the country’s debt burden.
5. AAII Bullish Sentiment Crashes — according to the latest weekly AAII survey, bullish sentiment dropped from 32.73% down to 23.85%. That drop is the largest one-week decline since July 2015 and takes bullish sentiment down to its lowest level since last November’s election. Bullish sentiment has now been below 50% for a record 124 straight weeks.
Meanwhile, bearish sentiment increased by less than half as much as bullish sentiment declined. However, at a level of 34.25%, more than a third of individual investors consider themselves bearish.
The week ahead — Economic data from Econoday.com:
