Monday, April 02, 2018

Trade War 2018 All In Red Ink

Lemme see if I can show you how today's stock markets are looking right about now (1 PM EDT):


Granted, the markets can still rebound towards the end of the day, but we're already 500 points in the hole on the Dow Jones, the S&P is in the red, Nasdaq is in the red, and I have no idea what that fourth one is but it's in the red too.

This is what it looks like, donald trump, when you start a trade war with China (via Business Insider):

US stocks tumbled Monday as President Donald Trump doubled down on his criticism of Amazon, sending technology and consumer discretionary stocks lower.
The selling also comes ahead of the Trump administration's plan to unveil this week the list of Chinese imports targeted for US tariffs. The list of $50-60 billion worth of annual imports is expected to target "largely high-technology" products.
The more tech-heavy Nasdaq 100— which has been a lightning rod for market volatility in recent weeks — plummeted as much as 3.3% to lead all major US indexes. Meanwhile, the benchmark S&P 500 dropped as much as 2%, and the 30-company Dow Jones industrial average slid more than 2.1% at one point.
Among the technology firms worst hit were chipmakers, including Lam Research, Micron Technology, Nvidia, Intel, and Cisco, which all dropped at least 3.7%. Note that due to their position in supply chain, these firms are more vulnerable to geopolitical turmoil, particularly as it pertains to China...

If you remember the last time the stock market nose-dived like this about a month ago, that related to trump's announcement to place tariffs on steel and aluminum. This is merely Phase Two, where the other nations start responding to trump's stupidity on trade, meaning we're about to see a lot more red on the stock tickers. To CNN for this part:

The Chinese government said that tariffs on about $3 billion worth of US imports are going into effect Monday, hitting 128 products ranging from pork, meat and fruit to steel pipes...
...China's commerce and finance ministries said in statements late Sunday that authorities are imposing tariffs of 15% on 120 American products — such as fruits, nuts, wine and steel pipes — and 25% on eight other products, including pork and recycled aluminum.
Those products make up just a tiny portion of the hundreds of billions of dollars of goods shipped between the two countries each year. But the tariffs are alarming news for the affected industries.
The US National Pork Producers Council warned last month that the measures would "have a significant negative impact on rural America." It said the US pork industry sold $1.1 billion worth of products to China last year, making it the third largest export market...

I think a lot of pork-related farming communities are about to regret voting for trump in the next thirty days...

Also, trump's war against Amazon - because CEO Jeff Bezos owns the Washington Post - isn't doing the stock market any favors, adding onto the growing economic imbalance that is going to affect the national (and global) economy for the worse.

Don't forget how much of a "genius" this trump guy is: "Trade wars are good, and easy to win."

All that red on the spreadsheets. Even a C-student in Econ 1101 from UF can tell you that's not winning.

Right about now, I would encourage the Wharton School of Business to revoke trump's degree in Economics, because he has clearly not earned it.

Welcome to the Trade Wars.


1 comment:

Denny in Ohio said...

Being in Ohio it will be interesting to see how this pork tariff plays out. Based on all the non-thought put into the 2016 election I suspect that it will be more of the same, back trump to the bitter end no matter how much it hurts them personally. You might recall my lament regarding the scores of trump signs in Ohio (most likely you won't). I had a bad feeling then that came to fruition and am more convinced this time around that regardless of how negatively the tariffs effect pork producers they will not abandon ship, or even think about it. trump has modeled for them how to blame others (read Democrats and dark people) and they have been quick studies.