Gold

Typically risk-on and safe-haven assets have a negative correlation. On most occasions, they tend to run in opposite directions. There are exceptions to that rule. The most noteworthy is the bull run of 2009 in which gold and stocks experienced dramatically higher prices. Both asset classes reacted favorably as a direct result of the initiation of quantitative easing by the Federal Reserve.

Just like an airplane circling the airport, global Central Banks are in a holding pattern as they wait and assess the effect of policy implementation and the leadership style of President Donald Trump.

For the first time this year, Federal Reserve officials met and voted to keep interest rates unchanged. In a ten to zero vote, Federal Reserve officials unanimously decided to maintain the current Fed Funds rate.

In his novel, A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens writes, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness,” to illustrate the duality that existed between the classes during that time period.

In his first week in office, President Donald Trump addressed many of the issues needed to boost the economic revitalization currently taking place. For the most part, the corporate community, as well as investors and traders, saw this as a positive move forward. The net result was the US equities markets trading to a new historical high last week.

President Donald Trump completed his first full week in office and it has become extremely evident that what you see is what you get. In other words, the Donald Trump that campaigned for president, with all of his strengths and weaknesses, is the same Donald Trump now occupying 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

For the second day in a row the Dow Jones Industrial Average has closed above 20,000. Gaining roughly 29 points in today’s trading, the Dow is currently trading at 20,097, a fractional gain on the day. The S&P 500 is trading fractionally lower on the day and the NASDAQ fractionally higher. Although these indexes continue to trade in record territory, today’s gains are marginal at best.

Maybe not as historic as breaking the sound barrier, today the Dow Jones Industrial Average broke above 20,000. With an hour and a half left in the trading day, the Dow Jones is trading at 20075.64, up 163 points for the day.

Trump’s second full working day has triggered, or at least influenced, a risk on trading environment today. More importantly, today’s upside move in equities might be indicating a resurgence of the recent equities rally that formerly had been in a period of consolidation.

According to Investopedia, “Trumponomics describes the economic policies of U.S President Donald Trump, who won the November 8, 2016 presidential election on the back of bold economic plans such as cutting personal and corporate taxes, restructuring US trade deals and introducing large fiscal stimulus measures focused on infrastructure and defense.”