The markets were closed Friday and usually trading is rather light on a holiday week but this was an exception. The S&P 500 (NYSE: SPY) lost over 1% this week with every day closing lower than the last. This has not happened since October. Technicians also noted that price was able to break through the 50 day moving average which they use to signify a mid term change in trend. So what did it take to close the markets lower? The "Mother of All Bombs", and continued concerns in Syria and North Korea. These global tensions were enough to cause a small round of selling. Of course the markets are still quite positive for the year, but this week was the first time we saw some real volatility.
Volatility (NYSE: VXX) saw a rare, full week bounce as traders started to consider hedging. The VXX has not had a multi day move like this in over 5 months. The VXX bounced over 10% this week on the global concerns. In fact, any safe haven trade did well this week. Gold (NYSE: GLD) moved higher each day this week as well which really put into question the bearish sentiment held by analysts on gold. The price of Gold was able to break above the 200 day moving average for the first time in over five months and showed consistent volume.
Even the mighty Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL), which has been on an impressive run this year, saw some weakness this week. Though shares were only down 1.8%, it represented the stocks worst weekly move of the year.
Though the markets continue to show signs of weakness and global concerns remain a focus we cannot forget earnings season. Next week will offer a wide variety of names reporting earnings which could temporarily take the attention away from bombs, and terrorists.