MarketWatch (May 22)
“A soaring 30-year Treasury yield has grabbed the lion’s share of attention lately when it comes to signaling how the U.S. fiscal outlook is rattling investors.” What’s happening in Japan, as bond yields surge, is a “less-talked-about factor weighing on sentiment.” Yields on 30-year JGBs rose “to almost 3.17% on Thursday, the highest in roughly 25 years of record-keeping” while 40-year yields “jumped to 3.67%, the highest level since its inception in 2007.” The “sharply higher yields on Japanese government bonds” may already be enticing “the country’s investors to return home.” It is likely that “the recent selloff in the Japanese bond market may have played at least some role in the Treasury market’s own selloff of the longest-dated government maturity Thursday morning.”
Tags: 3.67%, 30-year, 40 year, Bond yields, Enticing, Fiscal outlook, Investors, JGBs, Rattling, Sentiment, Soaring, Surge, Treasury, U.S.
MSN (May 21)
“Donald Trump may be doing the world a big favor.” The “chaos” he has unleashed has “inadvertently produced an opportunity to create a better world.” And that “world where American and western power is limited and contained could not only end up being more peaceful but, over time, more prosperous.” Trump has loosened “the American grip on global power… an essential first step towards achieving a more just and balanced international order.”
Tags: Balanced, Better world, Chaos, Contained, Favor, Global power, Inadvertently, International order, Just, Limited, Opportunity, Peaceful, Prosperous, Trump, U.S., Western power
Minnesota Star Tribune (May 21)
“The world changed” in 2020 when “a police officer murdered George Floyd on a Minneapolis street corner.” Corporations put money and muscle into doing things better. In 2025, however, “a national backlash has slammed the brakes on investments aimed at improving deep-seated socioeconomic disparities…. President Donald Trump issued executive orders banning diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs in the public and private sectors.” U.S. corporations fell in line “by stepping back their public-facing efforts.”
Tags: Backlash, Banning, Corporations, Deep-seated, DEI, Executive orders, Floyd, Investments, Minneapolis, Money, Murdered, Police, Socioeconomic disparities, Trump, U.S.
Washington Post (May 19)
“Markets came under pressure Monday morning as investors dumped stocks, U.S. bonds and the dollar in early trading after the United States lost its triple-A bond rating, signaling new worries about the outlook for the world’s largest economy amid President Donald Trump’s trade war and heightened federal deficits.”
Tags: Bonds, Dollar, Dumped, Economy, Investors, Markets, Outlook, Pressure, Rating, Stocks, Trade war, Trading, Triple-A, Trump, U.S., Worries
Bloomberg (May 19)
“‘Sell America’ is back as Moody’s pushes 30-year yield to 5%.” Just a week after traders “had to react quickly to weekend news of an improvement in trade relations between the US and China,” they will again have to paddle hard, but this time in the opposite direction. Rising Treasury yields are also expected to “complicate the government’s ability to cut back by running up its interest payments, while also threatening to weaken the economy by forcing up rates on loans such as mortgages and credit cards.”
Tags: 5%, China, Economy, Government, Interest payments, Loans, Moody, Mortgages, Rates, Sell America, Threatening, Traders, Treasury yields, U.S., Weaken
Market Watch (May 17)
“President Donald Trump’s move to defuse an ugly trade war with China not only sparked a massive stock-market rally but also drove down the chances of a recession — for now.” Though it’s a welcome sign of relief, numerous obstacles remain. Nobody can rest assured. “Ongoing trade wars have not gone away, for one thing. Trump could change his mind or the U.S. could fail to strike more economic-friendly deals with China, after that 90-day pause, and other countries.” Moreover, the uncertainty has “made households and business hesitant to spend, hire and invest. Confidence has plunged in the past few months, and anxiety is unlikely to fade quickly.” U.S. growth remains likely “to taper off sharply this year.”
Tags: 90-day pause, China, Confidence, Deals, Defuse, Hire, Households, Invest, Obstacles, Recession, Relief, Spend, Stock-market rally, Trade war, Trump, U.S., Ugly, Uncertainty
The Times (May 13)
“The United States is expected to lose $12.5 billion in international travel spending by the end of the year.” According to the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) “reports of tourists being stopped at the border, visa detentions, a tariff war waged by the Trump administration and a higher exchange rate” are all factors in what they estimate will reduce 2025 spending by foreign tourists in the U.S. to $169 billion, “down 7 per cent from $181 billion last year and 22 per cent from the peak before the pandemic.”
Tags: $12.5 billion, $169 billion, 2025, Border, Exchange rate, International travel, Pandemic, Reduce, Spending, Tariff war, Tourists, Trump, U.S., Visa detentions, WTTC
Bloomberg (May 12)
“Xi Jinping’s decision to stand his ground against Donald Trump could hardly have gone any better for the Chinese leader…. The Trump administration’s retreat from sky-high tariffs wouldn’t have occurred if China hadn’t responded so forcefully, not only with retaliatory duties but also export controls and other steps.”
Tags: China, Decision, Duties, Export controls, Forcefully, Leader, Responded, Retaliatory, Retreat, Sky-high tariffs, Trump, U.S., Xi
Barron’s (May 12)
“The Nasdaq Composite entered a new bull market on Monday as the stock market surged after the U.S. and China agreed to ease back tariffs for 90 days. The tech-heavy index rallied 4.4%, closing more than 20% above its April 8 low to exit the bear market that began on April 4.” That wasn’t the only good news. “The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1,161 points, or 2.8%, closing more than 10% above its April 8 low to exit a technical correction. The S&P 500 rallied 3.3%.”
Tags: Bear market, Bull market, China, Dow Jones, Ease, Nasdaq, Rallied, S&P 500, Stocks, Surged, Tariffs, Tech-heavy, Technical correction, U.S.
South China Morning Post (May 9)
“Hong Kong must wake up to the dangers of US port and shipping threats “ While the world obsesses about Donald Trump’s tariffs, “a quieter but potentially more lasting confrontation is taking shape that could remake global trade infrastructure.” The Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR) recently “concluded an investigation into China’s shipbuilding and maritime sectors” and “its impact on the global trade architecture could be just as profound. If Hong Kong is “to remain a serious player on the international stage, we must respond with urgency, clarity and conviction” to measures that could include “per-voyage service fees on Chinese-built and Chinese-controlled vessels calling at US ports, as well as proposed tariffs on Chinese-made ship-to-shore cranes and other key port equipment” while requiring that LNG carriers be US-built, “phasing out Chinese-made ships from the trade.”
Tags: China, Confrontation, Dangers, Global trade, Hong Kong, Infrastructure, Maritime, Per-voyage service fees, Port, Ship-to-shore cranes, Shipbuilding, Shipping threats, Tariffs, Trade Representative, Trump, U.S.
