The Markets

If you found holiday songs or Beatles tunes humming through your head last week, it may have been your subconscious processing world and market events. 

Over the river and through the woods/To Grandmother’s house we go… Janet Yellen, current Vice Chairman and nominee to be the next Chairman of the Federal Reserve System, testified at her confirmation hearing before the U.S. Senate’s Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs on Thursday. Her comments were widely interpreted as indicating that current stimulus measures will remain in place. This made investors happy and helped push global stock markets higher. 

In the United States, the Dow Jones, S&P 500, and NASDAQ, all appear to be headed toward milestones. The Dow is nearing 16,000, the S&P is closing in on 1,800, and the NASDAQ is approaching 4,000. 

You say you want a revolution/Well you know/We all want to change the world… China’s third assembly of the 18th Central Committee, which also is being referred to as a blueprint for reform, a reform manifesto, and the Decision on Major Issues Concerning Comprehensively Deepening Reforms, is ambiguously phrased, according to The Economist. However, it appears to encourage: 

“…Experimentation in everything from trading rural land to the freeing of controls on interest rates. Barriers to migration will be further broken down and the one-child policy relaxed. A widely resented system of extra-judicial detention, known as laojiao (re-education through labour), will be scrapped.” 

China’s leaders also promised to elevate the role of markets in the economy. That news helped push Shanghai Composite Index higher last week.