Tag: Trump tariffs

Stocks sink as odds of U.S.-China trade deal appear to wane

Washington Post logoBond yields plunge, signaling investor flight to safety as they worry that a record stock run may be nearing its end.

Stocks continued their August swoon Monday on fears that Hong Kong protests, falling worldwide bond yields and the ongoing U.S.-China trade dispute could lead to a global recession.

The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 462 points before the blue chips clawed some of that back to finish down about 390 points at 25,898, about a 1.5 percent drop. Financial services was among the hardest-hit Dow sectors, with Goldman Sachs Group off 2.6 percent. Pfizer, United Technologies and Caterpillar were also big drags. Only drug giant Merck stayed slightly above water.

The Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index finished down 36 points at 2,882, a 1.2 percent drop. The technology-laden Nasdaq composite index fell about 95 points on the day to close at 7,863, or 1.2 percent.

View the complete August 12 article by Thomas Heath on The Washington Post website here.

Businesses, farmers brace for new phase in Trump trade war

The Hill logoU.S. businesses and farmers are begging President Trump for relief from his escalating trade war with China as tensions between the world’s two largest economies reach new heights.

Trump’s plan to impose a 10 percent tariff on more than $300 billion in Chinese goods, and China’s decision to suspend U.S. agricultural imports, sets the stage for potential economic and political blowback for the president.

Advocates for businesses and industries caught in the crosshairs of the yearlong U.S.-China trade war are bracing for damage, warning Trump’s new tariffs could force them to hike prices or lay off workers during this year’s holiday shopping season.

View the complete August 8 article by Sylvan Lane and Alex Gangitano on The Hill website here.

News Analysis: In ramping up trade war with China, Trump could be playing with fire

WASHINGTON — Shortly before igniting a new round in his trade war with China, President Trump last week accused Beijing of trying to stall talks until after the 2020 election in hopes of negotiating a better deal with a Democrat in the White House.

But Trump has strong incentives to drag out the fight: Behind a relatively strong U.S. economy and at least the chance of more credit stimulus from the Federal Reserve, he may benefit politically from continuing the confrontation with Beijing because it’s red meat for his political base.

The potential loser in this international game of chicken is the U.S. economy. Both long term and short term, the White House is playing with fire — and it could end up burning Trump’s reelection bid.

View the complete August 6 article by Don Lee on The Los Angeles Times website here.

Donald Trump’s Trade War with China is Spiraling Out of Control

History tells us that big movements in financial markets are difficult to predict, but when they come they happen very quickly. That is what we have seen over the past several days, as investors around the world have responded to a sudden escalation in the trade war between the world’s two largest economies, the United States and China, and the growing realization that at least one of these economies is being led by someone who doesn’t appear to understand the risks he is taking.

After posting their biggest decline of the year on Monday—a slide of three per cent—U.S. stocks rebounded somewhat on Tuesday morning. The modest rebound came after the the Chinese central bank signalled that, for now at least, it wouldn’t allow another decline in the value of the Chinese currency, the yuan. Monday’s big fall on Wall Street came after the yuan fell almost two per cent on that day, and Chinese officials suggested that the decline was a response to President Trump’s decision, last week, to broaden tariffs on Chinese goods. In a further escalation, the Trump Administration announced, on Monday evening, that it was designating China as a currency manipulator, a move that Trump signalled on Twitter by accusing the Chinese government of “trying to steal our businesses and factories.” (A lower value of the yuan makes Chinese exports more competitive.) Continue reading “Donald Trump’s Trade War with China is Spiraling Out of Control”

Analysts spooked as a key sign of a recession ‘blares loudest’ alarm since 2007

AlterNet logoEconomic analysts were spooked Monday as the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped more than 800 points and other key stock indices plunged in the worst fall of 2019. The drop came amid the turmoil of President Donald Trump’s ramped-up trade war with China.

China’s currency dropped to the lowest point in a decade, the Associated Press reported, following Trump’s announcement last week that he would move forward with a new round of tariffs.

Bloomberg reported in a story headlined “Yield Curve Blares Loudest U.S. Recession Warning Since 2007″:

View the complete August 5 article by Cody Fenwick on the AlterNet website here.

Dow plummets on devaluation of China’s currency

The Hill logoU.S. stock markets plummeted on Monday following China’s move to devalue its currency, Beijing’s latest step in a tense faceoff on trade with President Trump.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down more than 900 points, or 3.5 percent, in its worst one-day drop in 2019.  The S&P 500 had fallen 107 points late in the trading session, or 3.7 percent.

If the Dow closes at that level, it would rank as the third-largest, single-day point drop in its history. The current top four all took place in 2018. In percentage terms, however, the plunge would not break the top 20.

View the complete August 5 article by Niv Elis on The Hill website here.

Treasury Dept. designates China a ‘currency manipulator,’ a major escalation of the trade war

Washington Post logoThe United States and China traded blows in an unrestrained economic conflict Monday that sent stock markets plunging and threatened to inflict significant damage on a weakening global economy.

Late in the day, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin formally labeled China a “currency manipulator,” a largely symbolic slap at Beijing that is likely to deepen the growing animosity between the two trading partners.

The move, which President Trump had promised to take on his first day in office, requires Treasury only to initiate consultations with China. Beijing has long denied U.S. accusations that it keeps its currency undervalued to make its products more competitive on world markets.

View the complete August 5 article by David J. Lynch, Gerry Shih, Jeff Stein and Damian Paletta on The Washington Post website here.

Left Behind

Washington Post logoFarmers fight to save their land in rural Minnesota as trade war intensifies

MONTGOMERY, Minn. — The feed chopper was the only machine Bob Krocak ever bought new, back when he was starting out as an ambitious young dairy farmer.

He used it to chop acres of alfalfa and corn to feed his herd of Holstein dairy cattle, which repaid him with some of the creamiest milk in Le Sueur County. The chopper and its fearsome blades lasted through four decades of cold winters, muddy springs and grueling harvests.

Now, on a chilly Saturday morning, Krocak, 64, was standing next to the chopper in the parking lot of Fahey Sales Auctioneers and Appraisers, trying to sell what he had always prized. The 128 Holsteins were already gone, sold last year when his family quit the dairy business after three unprofitable years.

View the complete August 3 article by Annie Gowen on The Washington Post website here.

Fox News Host Neil Cavuto Tells Viewers Trump Is Wrong: ‘China Isn’t Paying These Tariffs. You Are.’

“Just to be clarifying, China isn’t paying these tariffs. You are,” Cavuto told his audience.

Immediately after President Donald Trump boasted to White House reporters that the United States rakes in billions of dollars from China because of his tariffs, Fox News anchor Neil Cavuto issued an on-air fact-check of the president’s remarks, directly telling his viewers that Trump is wrong.

While taking questions on the White House lawn Friday afternoon, the president insisted Americans farmers are fully behind his trade war and support his latest tariffs on $300 billion worth of goods from China.

“Remember this, our country is taking in billions and billions of dollars from China,” Trump exclaimed. “We never took in ten cents from China. Out of that many billions of dollars, we’re taking a part of it and giving it to the farmers because they’ve been targeted by China. The farmers, they come out totally whole.”

Right away, Cavuto cut away from the president’s impromptu press gaggle to point out that, once again, Trump was not telling the truth when it came to who pays for tariffs.

View the complete August 2 article by Justin Baragona on the Daily Beast website here.

Dow Jones Plunges As Trump Announces New Tariffs

Trump announced new tariffs on goods from China on Thursday afternoon and sent the stock market tumbling.

At 1:25 p.m. Eastern time, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) stood at 27,121. At 1:26 p.m., Trump announced on Twitter “the U.S. will start, on September 1st, putting a small additional Tariff of 10% on the remaining 300 Billion Dollars of goods and products coming from China into our Country.”

By 1:50 p.m., the Dow plunged more than 350 points to 26,735.

By 2:25 p.m., an hour after Trump’s announcement, the Dow dropped even more, to 26,680, or 441 points lower.

View the complete August 1 article by Dan Desai Martin on the National Memo website here.