For those vacationing in the first week of August, the weekly performance was just a sheer number, minus 0.5% for the S&P 500 and minus 0.6% for the Nasdaq.
For those who traded the 5-day roller-coaster the numbers are a result of a week of struggle. Monday was the worst trading day for US indexes this year as the Nasdaq reached briefly the 800 points pullback from July all-time highs, trading in correction territory for a short period.
Then, three strong day of green nearly wiped out all the losses for the week as investors bought the dip aggressively. Friday price action is most likely the preview of next week action, calmer, as both US and EU markets are bracing for the late August summer vacation.
The US China trade war is now also the US China currency war and is not likely to be taken off the table by both parties anytime soon after the Bank of China pushed the Yuan to a 10 year low versus the dollar at above 7 yuan/dollar this week. US government ban of Huawei products on one hand and Chinese boycott of US agriculture products on the other also contributed to the escalation of the tensions between the parties.
While equity markets around the globe has a wild ride, FX markets traded calm waters, the JPY being the winner in the FX markets this week on the move to safety and is trading at 2019 highs versus most majors.
"Safe Heavens" also dominated the winning column in commodities, Gold prices traded higher $57 this week to 7-year highs closing at $1,497 per ounce after trading above the $1,500 for the first time since 2013.
Silver prices climbed more than 4% as well.
Oil prices staged a reversal from 2019 lows of $50.2 per barrel on OPEC's push for more production cuts yet closed marginally lower for the week on global slowdown concerns and a surprise increase in US stockpiles. $54.36 per barrel was the closing price Friday.