Financial Review

…Trade wars backfire. Who pays? Retail sales up. Productivity up. Inventories up (a little). Homebuilder confidence slips. Financial Review by Sinclair Noe for 08-15-2018 DOW – 137 = 25,162 SPX – 21 = 2818 NAS – 96 = 7774 RUT – 21 = 1670 10 y – .04 = 2.85% OIL – 2.16 = 64.88 GOLD – 19.00 = 1175.70   Earlier, the Dow Industrial Average dropped under 25,000 – the Dow was down more than 300 points at session lows. The problem du jour is Turkey, which just keeps getting worse. And Turkey is just the tip of the iceberg; beneath the troubled waters, we can dip into the rest of the emerging markets; and beyond that we can look at the failed attempts to impose protectionist trade policies on our trade partners and allies. Turkey doubled tariffs on some U.S. imports, and China lodged a complaint with the World Trade Organization against American trade policies.   New data provides tangible evidence that some elements of Trump’s trade wars are backfiring. Prices for agricultural exports fell 5.3% in July, the biggest d