With the holidays soon upon us, the news has gotten decidedly slow. However, it does seem a trade deal is imminent as of this writing, which is a nice step toward more normal trade relations with China.

Despite a number of sharp swings this week, the markets look to finish near where they started. News regarding trade with China, as well as potential new tariffs threatened by President Trump, whipsawed investors who traded with reckless abandon.

Being a holiday week for the markets, we thought we’d take the opportunity to send out our weekly email a little earlier than usual.

Despite the fact it was a contentious week, investors continue to look to the end of the year with hopes of a trade resolution and perhaps a bit more clarity going into 2020.

Earnings announcements wrapped up this week with the last remaining stragglers reporting. The start of impeachment hearings on Capitol Hill garnered most of the media’s attention this week. Fed isn't eager to cut rates further.

The market has had a great few weeks. Earnings announcements in-line or better than expected coupled with economic data that doesn’t seem to be weakening beyond expectations has put investors in a downright giddy mood.

As far as weeks go, this one was pretty middle-of-the-road. While there were a lot of companies reporting earnings announcements, there weren’t any that stood out as exceptionally good or bad.

We look to finish the week flat as a confluence of news and data pushed and pulled at investors all week long. From a Brexit deal to earnings announcements, and a military misstep in Syria to economic data both good and bad, it has been a head-spinning kind of week.

This week the markets look to finish higher despite or perhaps due to a lack of news. This bucks the three-week slide we’ve recently experienced.

No one ever said the economy, and by extension the stock market, was easy to read. With so much conflicting data and so many variables, it is often difficult for even a professional to fully understand exactly what is happening.