After the market closed on Wednesday, April 2, the President announced new “reciprocal” tariffs on nearly every nation. How were tariffs calculated? Figure 1: The Tariff Formula In plain language, let’s use China as an example (WSJ). Divide the U.S. 2024 goods-trade deficit of $295 billion by the amount the U.S. imported from China—$439 billion. That […]
The S&P 500 Index set an all-time high on February 19. However, optimism quickly faded as investors grew increasingly concerned over trade policy and the economy. On March 13, the S&P 500 entered its first official correction since 2023, with the index down 10.13%. It’s the first correction since the second half of 2023. But
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Is the stock market up 7% or 37% this year? Well, it depends. According to one major index, the market is up a respectable 7%. That’s not bad following last year’s dismal performance, but contrast that with another well-known index, and we might conclude that the stock market is up nearly 20%. Sounds great, right?
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This year’s progress in the stock market can be primarily attributed to the slower pace of rate hikes and the growth of the economy. Furthermore, the fascination with artificial intelligence (AI) has significantly boosted the performance of technology stocks.
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September 27, 2021 The Markets Central banks have a lot of influence on investors, markets and economies. For the last year or so, the Federal Reserve has been purchasing $120 billion of bonds every month to ensure United States markets remained liquid and interest rates remained low during the pandemic. Last Wednesday, the Fed announced
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August 30, 2021 In a speech last week, Federal Reserve (Fed) Chair Jerome Powell confirmed that the United States economy has made substantial progress toward the Fed’s maximum employment and price stability goals. His words helped grow recent equity market returns and, consequently, the Fed is likely to slow, and eventually stop, the bond purchases
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August 23, 2021 The Markets Last week, markets were shaken by a potent cocktail of central bank tapering and economic growth concerns – mixed with coronavirus and a splash of new Chinese privacy law. On Wednesday, the U.S. Federal Reserve’s Open Market Committee Meeting minutes were released. They confirmed the Fed could begin tapering –
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U.S. GDP in June was nearly $23 trillion, a difficult number to comprehend. Twenty-three trillion dollars would cover Rhode Island, Delaware, Connecticut, Hawaii, New Jersey, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont, Maryland, West Virginia, and part of South Carolina.
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August 9, 2021 The Markets Are we there yet? For months, investors have wondered when the Federal Reserve (Fed) might begin to “normalize” its policies, a process that will, eventually, lead to higher interest rates. Last week, a better-than-expected unemployment report – showing a gain of almost a million jobs – sparked speculation about whether
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