Weekly Market Update

U.S. stocks rose to weekly gains in a stretch that included four straight records for the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The S&P 500, Dow industrials and Nasdaq Composite also reached fresh closing highs together on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Asian stocks moved down from 10-year highs following a burst of Chinese data that was weaker than investors had expected (for the second straight month). Bitcoin prices fell on Thursday after China’s second-largest digital-currency exchange announced it was shutting down its domestic trading operations. This came after reports on Monday that China was getting ready to prohibit the trading of bitcoin and other digital currencies on exchanges. Speculation is regulators will reverse action within the next six months.

Venezuela will make all pending debt payments despite “a series of difficulties” that have arisen as a result of financial sanctions by the United States, Economy Vice President Ramon Lobo said on Thursday.
Qatar has pumped over $38B of its $340B reserves into its economy to offset the impact of its neighbors’ embargo, according to a Moody’s report on Wednesday which said the equivalent of 23% of the country’s GDP has been used. Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain, and Egypt have imposed a trade embargo on Qatar since the start of June, after accusing it of sponsoring terrorism.

Company