Financial Times (June 5)
“Just a month ago, multinationals and investors were looking forward to an agreement that would end the China-US trade war that has rocked global markets for the past year. Instead, talks broke down.” Donald Trump “further enraged Chinese officials by barring Huawei, the best-known Chinese telecoms company, from sourcing American components and technology.” China’s new list of unreliable entities appears to be in retaliation and it has panicked foreign investors. The “vague wording suggests Beijing could move against any person or organization.”
Tags: China, Enraged, Huawei, Investors, Markets, Multinationals, Panicked, Retaliation, Telecoms, Trade war, Trump, U.S., Unreliable entities
Newsweek (May 13)
“China’s decision to raise tariffs on U.S. goods made its impact felt on Wall Street as stock markets began the week on a downbeat note. Both the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 index fell by more than 2 percent in early trading,” while the Nasdaq dropped even further. Market volatility “was directly linked to the escalating trade war between the U.S. and China…. The back-and-forth retaliation between the two superpowers wiped out the marginal gains stocks recorded at the end of last week.”
Tags: China, Dow Jones, Downbeat, Gains, Nasdaq, Retaliation, Stock market, Superpowers, Tariffs, Trade war, U.S., Volatility, Wall Street
Wall Street Journal (March 1)
“Donald Trump made the biggest policy blunder of his Presidency Thursday by announcing that next week he’ll impose tariffs of 25% on imported steel and 10% on aluminum. This tax increase will punish American workers, invite retaliation that will harm U.S. exports, divide his political coalition at home, anger allies abroad, and undermine his tax and regulatory reforms. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.7% on the news, as investors absorbed the self-inflicted folly.”
Bloomberg (March 21)
The so-called skyscraper curse has claimed another victim. “After almost seven years of planning and 4 trillion won ($3.6 billion) in spending, the conglomerate is preparing to unwrap its Lotte World Tower to the public.” Like other skyscrapers planned in the best of times, this unveiling is taking place amid challenging times as South Korea “is being pummeled by concurrent political and economic crises.” Morevoer, “the debut couldn’t come at a worse time for Lotte…. The empire’s 94-year-old founder and three of his children face corruption charges, and its stores are at the epicenter of Chinese consumer retaliation for a U.S. missile-defense system being installed on land it provided.” Making things even worse, an elevator glitch has delayed the grand opening by two weeks.
Tags: China, Corruption, Crises, Delay, Elevator, Founder, Lotte World Tower, Missile defense, Planning, Retaliation, Skyscraper curse, South Korea, U.S., Victim
The Economist (November 23, 2013)
Impatient with European dithering, “the Federal Reserve will soon publish rules governing the operations of big foreign banks that will, in effect, throw up a wall around America’s financial markets.” This is understandable, but likely to lead badly as the Europeans retaliate with their own restrictions, fragmenting the global banking system. Instead, “America should give global banking rules—and Europe’s dilatory regulators—one last chance.”
Tags: Europe, Federal Reserve, Financial markets, Global banking rules, Regulators, Restrictions, Retaliation