If you listen to late-night comedians the Mueller testimony was a huge success, but they are preaching to a shrinking and increasingly isolated choir.

Wall Street voted on the Mueller testimony as well, and they voted in the only way they know how - with cash.



On the day Mueller testified before Congress about his 400-plus page report about the Trump campaign and the Russians, the VanEck Russia (RSX) exchange-traded fund had already been dumped the night before—going from a trading volume of over 6 million shares to 4.2 million on Wednesday. By Friday, RSX volume rose to 5.5 million shares, hitting $23.64 per share.

...“The conclusion of the Mueller investigation reduces the urgency for the U.S. Congress to impose additional sanctions on Russia,” says Federico Kaune, head of emerging-markets fixed income at UBS Asset Management. Kaune warns that Russian ruble valuations are stretched now that investors doubt deeper sanctions. Year-to-date, Russia is the hottest-performing emerging market. The VanEck ETF is up 26% while No. 2 Brazil is up 18.9% and the MSCI Emerging Markets benchmark is up 9.3%.



Putin's stock market

Not only does Moscow have one of the hottest stock markets in the world, it's expected to rise another 25% in the coming year. Russian corporate profits are at a three-year high, while the Bank of Russia reducing interest rates because inflation is not a factor.

Now Congress could always impose more sanctions on Russia out of spite or another round of false hacking stories, but consider the example of America's embargo on Russian weapons. How effective has that been?



Russia's arms industry has become the second-largest in the world, knocking the UK into third place, according to a new report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).

Russian companies in the SIPRI Top 100, an index of the largest arms-producing and military services companies in the world, made 9.5% of total arms sales in 2017.

The SIPRI Top 100 contains 10 Russian companies that increased arms sales by a collective 8.5% in 2017 to $37.7 billion.