For Stock Traders, the Number 16 Is Especially Sweet
A buy signal for equities leads market commentary.
Feeling bullish for a day.
Photographer: Michael Nagle/Bloomberg
The S&P 500 Index rallied Monday, but trying to assign logic to the move feels a bit like a fool's errand. When pressed for a reason, investors cited a de-escalation of trade tensions between the U.S. and China over the weekend, but that doesn't feel satisfying. After all, the Trump administration only said the two nations agreed to “substantially” reduce the U.S. merchandise trade deficit with China. Beijing, meanwhile, promised to “significantly” increase purchases of U.S. goods and services.
The problem is, nobody can quantify "substantially" or "significantly," because neither side attached numbers to their statements. Nevertheless, there is a number that investors can work from: 16.