Dow Jones Futures Volatile: China Trade War Trumps Stock Market Rally, Fed Rate Cuts

Dow Jones futures fell sharply Sunday night, along with S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq futures, as the China trade war escalates, following Friday's big stock market declines. After hiking China tariff rates Friday, President Donald Trump said Sunday his trade war regret was not raising tariffs higher. Apple, perhaps the ultimate China trade war stock, will be in focus.

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  White House insists Trump has authority to block American companies from doing business in China

  Yahoo News
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  U.S. equity futures reopen lower, U.S.-China trade relations at new low ebb

  Reuters

2 Stocks You Should Consider Shorting This Week

Using recent actions and grades from TheStreet's Quant Ratings and layering on technical analysis of the charts of those stocks, Trifecta Stocks identifies five names each Friday that look bearish. While we will not be weighing in with fundamental analysis we hope this piece will give investors interested in stocks on the way down a good starting point to do further homework on the names. Altria Group Inc. recently was downgraded to Hold with a C+ rating by TheStreet's Quant Ratings.

Fund Manager Who Beat 98% of Peers Says Stay Calm and Buy Stocks

Joanna Kwok, who co-manages the JPMorgan Asia Growth Fund, says volatility will linger in Asia markets due to trade war uncertainty and corporate earnings concerns. “You just need to be continuously disciplined,” said Kwok, whose fund tracking the MSCI Asia excluding Japan Index has returned 11% year-to-date.

Germany in Uproar as Negative Rates Threaten Saving Obsession

Most Germans live by the credo that saving is a virtue, but the European Central Bank's negative interest rates risk making a mockery of the national obsession, prompting politicians to seek ways to insulate thrifty citizens and keep the burden on the country's beleaguered banks. Finance Minister Olaf Scholz says he'll look into whether it's possible to prevent German banks from charging most retail-banking clients for deposits, after such a measure was proposed by the leader of Bavaria. Lenders have rejected the idea, saying bans don't ultimately help clients and could even destabilize financial markets.

Trade war intensifies – What to know in the week ahead

This announcement came after China earlier in the day Friday announced it planned to impose new tariffs on $75 billion worth of U.S. imports – a move that itself had been a response to the Trump administration's previously announced tariffs set to take effect in September and December. This illustrates the speed at which the trade war is now escalating and there is no way of knowing where it will end,” Paul Ashworth, chief U.S. economist for Capital Economics, said in a note. It is fears about where the trade war is going that will now weigh even more heavily on financial markets and business investment in the coming months – and that is where the real damage to the US economy will be done.

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  Larry Kudlow on Trump’s ‘Second Thoughts’ Remarks: ‘He Didn’t Exactly Hear the Question’

  The Daily Beast
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  White House says the president regrets not raising tariffs higher

  Yahoo News Video

US exports to lobster-loving China go off cliff amid tariffs

U.S. lobster exports to China have fallen off a cliff this year as new retaliatory tariffs shift the seafood business farther north. China, a huge and growing customer for lobster, placed heavy tariffs on U.S. lobsters — and many other food products — in July 2018 amid rising trade hostilities between the Chinese and the Trump administration. Meanwhile, business is booming in Canada, where cargo planes are coming to Halifax, Nova Scotia, and Moncton, New Brunswick, to handle a growing bump in exports.

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  Retailers Dealt Another Blow as Trump Steps Up China Tariffs

  Bloomberg
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  Trump sparks confusion before doubling down on China tariffs

  AFP

5 ‘Strong Buy’ Stocks Hedge Funds Love Right Now

And from this data it has compiled a list of hedge funds' most popular stocks right now i.e. stocks with the most hedge fund dollars invested. In our experience, crowded names among active managers, including hedge funds, are usually crowded for a reason (good fundamentals). Most of our baskets of crowded names have outperformed since we started tracking the data at the end of 2010, and our stats can be used to make the case for hedge fund management” comments the firm.

The 10 commandments of retirement

Many Americans aren't saving enough. They want to retire earlier than they can reasonably afford. They're effectively financially illiterate.

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  3 Ways to Earn Extra Income in Retirement

  Motley Fool
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  Most Americans Haven't Increased Their Retirement Plan Contributions This Year, Data Shows

  Motley Fool

Mortgage rates fall again as the peak home-buying season begins to draw to a close

Mortgage rates slipped lower over the last week, a boon to those looking to buy a home or refinance. The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 3.55% during the week ending Aug. 22, down five basis points from the previous week, Freddie Mac (FMCC)  reported Thursday. Rates for 30-year home loans have only increased eight times on a weekly basis so far this year — otherwise, they have dropped or remained even.

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  U.S Mortgage Rates Resume the Decline as Economic Woes Build

  FX Empire
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  Interest rate cuts could make these bonds an attractive target

  MarketWatch

S&P 500 Futures Slide as Traders Struggle to Price In Trade War

September contracts on the S&P 500 fell 1.1% as of 8:55 p.m. in New York, while futures on the Nasdaq 100 dropped 1.2%. Stocks plunged Friday after Trump warned of an unspecified response to China's plan to slap new tariffs on $75 billion of U.S. goods. “This is sort of the norm, in terms of what's going on, a lot of the market activity has been geopolitically driven and the president escalating the trade war,” David Katz, chief investment officer at Matrix Asset Advisors in Westchester, New York.

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  U.S. equity futures reopen lower, U.S.-China trade relations at new low ebb

  Reuters
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  China to fight back against U.S. tariff move: People's Daily

  Reuters

This couple fought $25,000 in fraudulent credit-card charges after falling prey to identity theft — then things got even worse

Amy Wang and her husband spent hundreds of hours trying to straighten out their financial futures after falling prey to identity theft. Amy, a 50-year-old occupational therapist in Miami, says she and her husband, Michael Wang, started receiving credit-card denials and store credit cards in the mail in December of 2015. The shoppers had expensive taste, Amy said, opting for luxuries like diamond earrings, Gucci and Armani.

The Real Reason Why US Oil Production Has Peaked

We need over 12,000 new horizontal oil wells completed each year to hold production flat and the number of completed wells will need to go up each year. What happens if U.S. oil production stalls or goes on decline? This is a big question because U.S. production growth has been close to 90% of global oil supply growth over the last three years.

25 dividend stocks selected for value by an outperforming money manager

Buckingham did a special screen of stocks held within Prudent Speculator portfolios to narrow the group to 25 that meet additional criteria, as listed below. He also provided three- to five-year price targets for the group. That is in contrast to the 12-month targets and ratings used by most Wall Street analysts.

China’s Companies Have Unseen Foreign Debt That's Maturing Fast

On top of the $2 trillion in liabilities to foreigners captured in official data, mainland Chinese firms have around another $650 billion in debts built up by subsidiaries overseas, according to Bloomberg calculations. The prospect of Chinese companies rushing to find dollars to service liabilities comes at a time when authorities have already allowed the currency to sink below 7 per dollar amid a trade war with the U.S. The nation now risks a reprisal of what happened after the yuan's devaluation in 2015, when foreign-debt servicing contributed to a rapid decline in the country's foreign-currency reserves. “China's debt servicing risks can be underestimated with this part of the debt staying outside the official gauge,” said Ji Tianhe, a strategist at BNP Paribas SA in Beijing, adding that the $3.1 trillion in foreign-currency reserves is “just enough” to cover the risks.

How one millennial managed to save almost $1 million in 10 years without ever earning a salary of more than $75,000

FIRE refers to the “financial independence, retire early” movement bubbling up in the younger generation these days as a pathway out of the grind — slash expenses, save a bundle and enjoy the freedom that approach ultimately allows. Using the name FluffayPenguin, one anonymous thirtysomething took to Reddit to illustrate his FIRE blueprint, which allowed him to graduate college in 2008 and build a small chunk of change all the way up to $930,000 in savings. Well, for starters, he lived at home half of that time, a choice many millennials are making as housing costs skyrocket.

Hong Kong Protests Force Companies to Choose: Their Employees or China

Employers early on supported their workers' desire to protest but have started to shift under pressure from Beijing. Every company in Hong Kong is in a delicate situation.

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  The Latest: Hong Kong police confirm warning shot, arrest 36

  Associated Press
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  Protest chaos grips Hong Kong with tear gas, water cannon and pouring rain

  Reuters

How Slavery Hurt the U.S. Economy

One school of thought argues that slavery in general, and cotton in particular, was the driving force behind the development of America's distinctive brand of capitalism. The reality is that cotton played a relatively small role in the long-term growth of the U.S. economy. The economics of slavery were probably detrimental to the rise of U.S. manufacturing and almost certainly toxic to the economy of the South.

3 Major Casualties of China’s New Tariffs

On Friday, China announced new tariffs on $75 billion worth of imported American goods, and a resumption of the 5% tariff on automotive parts. President Trump responded in his customary fashion, by Tweet, saying in part, “Our great American companies are hereby ordered to immediately start looking for an alternative to China, including bringing your companies HOME and making your products in the USA.” He added that the trade situation represents an opportunity for the US. Markets reacted to China's and Trump's announcements by plunging.

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  Trade Tensions Reach Dangerous Heights As Trump Retaliates Against China

  FX Empire
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  Trump Clarifies Trade 'Regrets'

  Bloomberg

Stakes Were Higher in 2008 but It's ‘Way Weirder’ Trading Trump

A decade ago, Max Gokhman was a 24-year-old at the center of the storm, buying and selling toxifying credit contracts at a hedge fund he founded. Now head of asset allocation at Pacific Life Fund Advisors, he says those days barely compare when it comes to the unpredictability he's facing daily. “I used to tell people trading credit derivatives through 2008 was crazy, but this is way weirder,” said Gokhman.

With recession fears rising, here's how to find stability when Wall Street has you on edge

Now, if you didn't choose how to invest the money, most of the time – nearly 68% of plans – your 401(k) automatically will be invested for you in target retirement date funds, according to the latest data from the Plan Sponsor Council of America. "Most people don't consider themselves to be sophisticated investors," said Katie Taylor, vice president of thought leadership at Fidelity in Boston. So, she said, the target date fund can fill that gap by offering a prepackaged mix of stocks, bonds and cash that takes on more risk when you are younger.