No I certainly would not say it is all about the tariffs,...

No I certainly would not say it is all about the tariffs, apologies if my post came off that way. I think many are still dubious about whether they will reach an agreement, and by no means would I say it is near resolved. I've said before I think it will require a genuine resolution, not more "we are talking and we are trying hard to solve our issues", which they have stated numerous times without any notable follow-through. Although I will say the very initial response was a positive one, the sell down following that does suggest little faith in them following through again. Your point about it being one of the "distractions" is an interesting one, and I think to argue it has been used recently as a tool to try and manipulate the movement of the markets (both up and down) in recent times would be a fair one. So long as the uncertainty hangs over us, we are vulnerable to that kind of "financial headline" manipulation, perhaps evidenced by the large spike in volatility.

I do think that even without the tariff spat there was a need for consolidation to try and get some value back into the market, and little doubt there are genuine reasons to have a bearish outlook heading into 2019. But that does not mean that the market will not find reasons in the short term to have a bullish run. There can be an iffy long term outlook and still have these short term bull runs. I do suspect your view is a fair bit longer term than mine though, and I do share the view that longer term, it needs to pull back to bring some value back to the market, too hot for too long only feeds into the old boom-bust cycle. The big tech stocks that helped drive market growth (talking the like of the FAANG stocks) in particular I felt needed the heat taken out of them.