The U.S.-China trade talks fizzled out last week, prompting President Trump to make good on his threat to raise the tariff rate from 10 to 25 percent on $200 billion worth of imported Chinese goods. Here are eight questions about where the conflict stands now.
Read MoreWith just one trading session left in the year, it’s time to take a deep breath, look back and learn eight important lessons from 2018.
Read MoreThe news cycle can teach us important economic and personal finance lessons. Here are my picks for 2018. Happy New Year!
Read MoreThe U.S. economy is experiencing “a particularly bright moment,” according to Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, which is why Fed officials increased interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point to a new range of 2 to 2.25 percent and are likely to hike one more time by the end of the year. The strength is likely to persist into next year. According to the central bank’s “dot plot,” which is intended to forecast future actions, there will be four rate hikes by the end of 2019.
Read MoreAfter the Trump Administration announced that it would impose 10 percent tariffs on another $200 billion worth of Chinese goods, starting Monday September 24 – and then the Chinese said they would retaliate with 5-10 percent tariffs on $60 billion of U.S. goods, the stock market rallied…and then kept on going up, throughout the week. The proximate rationale for the bump was that tariff levels were lower than expected and on the U.S. side, excluded a number of consumer-friendly goods, like iPhones, smart watches and sneakers.
Read MoreSo far, tariffs and trade conflicts have not negatively impacted the labor market. The economy added a solid 201,000 jobs in August and with revisions to the previous two months (down 50K), employers have added an average 207,000 a month to payrolls this year, quite a feat, considering that we are in the tenth year of the expansion.
Read MoreFive days after implementing tariffs on $34 billion worth of imported Chinese goods, the Trump administration released a list of an additional $200 billion worth of Chinese imports that will be subject to a 10 percent tariff. On the day of the announcement, stocks slid, but only by about a half of a percent. By the end of the week, it seemed like investors had forgotten about the announcement and instead were focusing on corporate earnings and the strength of the economy.
Read MoreMany parts of the country recently experienced a heat wave and with extreme temperatures, come the usual warnings: keep your pets indoors, don’t overdo physical activity and hydrate often. It just so happens, that the heat wave coincided with the implementation of U.S. and Chinese tariffs, which prompted some tea-leaf readers to come to a boil on the markets and exclaim “SELL EVERYTHING!” Before you take any action that would pre-empt your game plan, here’s a handy summertime hint: stay cool with your investments!
Read MoreWith the release of the Labor Department's June employment report, it’s time to assess how the economy is doing, six months into 2018.
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