Lots of distractions this morning, including a tell-all book by the former head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, James Comey, that takes a fair amount of cheap shots at the Commander in Chief.  I get that a lot of folks dislike President Trump, and its easy money dishing the dirt or innuendo, but it’s hard to believe this was the guy in charge of the FBI.

It’s certainly a distraction to trading today.

It’s not just Comey.  The street has been distracted by a lot of noise this week, including news of raids on Trump’s personal lawyer Michael Cohen’s offices on Monday.

At the time, the stock market was enjoying a strong move higher (see arrow), but in a two-hour period, the Dow Jones Industrial Average stumbled to close down four hundred points from 24,364 to 23,975.

Dow Jones Industrial Average

Impact of Noise

I continue to ask investors to focus on fundamentals rather than the noise, but that doesn’t mean the noise doesn’t have an impact.  In fact, Michigan Sentiment for April slipped in large part to concern about the so-called trade war.  It’s a small decline, but it is disappointing.  The key was concern over trade confrontation, which was mentioned by 29% of respondents:

• 27% negatively
• 2% positively

That uncertainty, and all the reports of doom and gloom, pressured the expectations component lower.

I believe the market is antsy with a lot of unknowns from a potential strike in Syria over the weekend and the clock ticking on tough trade negotiations with China, Canada and Mexico.

I think we can see the market surge early next week as we get more earnings, and even if there are military strikes in Syria, it should be viewed as a one-off and unlikely to mushroom into WWIII.