Morning Briefing
Market decides it can’t figure out the news on the U.S.-China trade agreement
What if they announced a Part 1 agreement in the U.S.-China trade war but nobody could figure out what if meant if anything? Stocks would go nowhere. The Standard & Poor's 500 gained all of 0.1% today and the Dow Jone Industrial Average matched that big move with...
Do you believe Trump when he says a big China deal is near?
Today, Thursday December 12, just five minutes after stocks opened for trading in New York, President Donald Trump, tweeted that the U.S. and China are very close to signing a “big” trade deal. “They want it, and so do we!” he tweeted. Of course, last week President...
Inflation isn’t exactly dead
Wall Street is counting on the Federal Reserve to stay on the sidelines until September and then resume cutting interest rates. Some big money advisors are even counting on the Fed to cut interest rates again before September. Bloomberg ran an interview this morning...
Democrats sign onto revised U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement with vote likely next week
Washington, D.C. is the home of the surreal these days but the timing of the announcement by Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi still raised eyebrows. Just minutes after the House committees investigating President Donald Trump voted two articles of impeachment,...
China exports drop again in November
China's total exports dropped 1.1% year over year in November, the country's customs administration said on Sunday. Total exports to the United States fell 23% year over year. That was the worst result for exports to the United States since February and a 12th...
Surprise! U.S. economy adds 266,000 jobs in November; unemployment drops to 3.5%
The United States added 266,000 jobs in November and the official unemployment rate fell to 3.5%. The results were buoyed by the return to jobs of 41,300 General Motors workers after the settlement of that strike. But the November total was still impressively stronger...
OPEC does nothing and markets seem to be ok with that
OPEC reached an agreement today to cut an additional 500,000 barrels a day from production. In reality that action is close to "no action" since OPEC has been informally making those supply reductions for most of the year thanks to voluntary cuts by Saudi Arabia that...
“News” on U.S.-China trade talks takes away, “news” on talks gives back
A day after "news" on the lack of progress of U.S.-China trade talks led to a decline in stocks, "news" of progress in the talks has led to a modest rally. The Standard & Poor's 500 closed up 0.63% today and the Dow Jones Industrial Average was ahead 0.53%. The...
Trump says, No hurry to strike a trade deal with China in 2020, and markets tumble
“I don’t have a deadline,” Trump told reporters today in London. “I like the idea of waiting until after the election for the China deal. But they want to make a deal now and we’ll see whether not the deal is going to be right.” And with that financial markets that...
Where’d that come from? Trump reinstates tariffs on Brazilian and Argentine steel and aluminum
President Donald Trump has reinstated tariffs on steel and aluminum exports from Argentina and Brazil, leaving global financial markets wondering what that means. At best, the move is based on mis-understanding by the White House of how exchange rates work. The...
What about the Hong Kong vote? Market’s focus on just part of China news sends U.S. stocks to all-time highs
Today both the Standard & Poor’s 500 and the NASDAQ Composite Index hit all time highs. As of 3:40 p.m. New York time on Monday, November 25, the S&P 500 was up 0.67% and the NASDAQn Composite had gained 1.26%. There are two main drivers for the market...Jim’s Stock Alerts
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