Archive for August, 2023

• Morning News: August 31, 2023
  Eddy Elfenbein, August 31st, 2023 at 7:04 am

  Inflation Rate in Eurozone Holds Steady

  China’s Factory Activity Sparks Hope Slump Is Bottoming Out

  China’s Slowing Economy Spells Trouble for Dry-Bulk Shipping

  The U.S. and China Are Talking Again. Where It Will Lead Is Unclear

  U.S. Businesses Need Predictability From China, Commerce Chief Says

  The US Is Losing the Corn-Exporting Crown

  Shell Quietly Abandons Its $100 Million-a-Year Plan to Offset Carbon Emissions

  Fed’s Bostic Urges Caution to Avoid Inflicting Unnecessary Pain

  UBS Flags Cost Cuts After $29 Billion Credit Suisse Windfall

  Microsoft to Unbundle Teams Software in Europe

  Musk Says X Will Offer Video and Audio Calls in Move Toward Super-App

  The Tropical Island With the Hot Domain Name

  Salesforce Needs to Play Its AI Chips Wisely

  EV Boom Remakes Rural Towns in the American South

  Companies Are Using Fewer Temp Workers, but That Doesn’t Portend a Downturn

  Make Less Than $55,000 a Year? You Could Get Overtime Pay Under Biden Plan

  Mark Thompson Helped Steady 2 News Outlets. Can He Do the Same at CNN?

  Constellation Brands Has Sobered Up. Its Stock Has Room to Party

  The Fight to Control Big Gay Ice Cream, Which Made the Rainbow Its Brand

  For Women With Money Issues, an A.D.H.D. Diagnosis Can Be Revelatory

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• Morning News: August 30, 2023
  Eddy Elfenbein, August 30th, 2023 at 7:05 am

  Gabon Military Stages Coup, the Latest to Hit a Former French Colony in Africa

  Parisians Are Pledging Allegiance to the ‘Republic of Super Neighbors.’ They Must Bring Cheese.

  China Moves to Shore Up Finances of Troubled Bank

  China’s Biggest Homebuilder Raises Capital in Scramble to Pay Debts

  EU Lawmakers Struggle to Compromise on Post-Brexit Derivatives Clearing

  Crypto’s Top Enemy Gensler Put on Defensive by Grayscale Ruling

  Funds Punished for Owning Too Few Nvidia Shares After Stunning 230% Rally

  Tiger Cubs’ Wrong-Way Bets Cut Flow of Fresh Cash to a Trickle

  Voice Deepfakes Are Coming for Your Bank Balance

  Oil Rises on US Stockpile Draw and Hurricane Jitters

  Lithium Players Race for Breakthrough to Meet Electric Car Demand

  Toyota-Supplier Denso Is Ready for the EV Era

  Where Peak-Season Shipping Is Headed, In Charts

  Train Wi-Fi Can Be Terrible. Operators Are Looking High and Low for Solutions

  Salesforce Boss Marc Benioff Warns He May Pull Headline Conference from San Francisco Over Rampant Homelessness and Drug Use—but He’s Donating $1 Million to Try to Help

  A California Land Mystery Is Solved. Now the Political Fight Begins

  Where Tech Investors Are Buying Up Land, Locals Are Worried

  The Hostile Takeover of Blue Cities by Red States

  How a Tiny Mexican Border City Built a Budget Dental Empire

  Lego Sales Increase While Other Toy Makers Struggle

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• CWS Market Review – August 29, 2023
  Eddy Elfenbein, August 29th, 2023 at 6:53 pm

  (This is the free version of CWS Market Review. If you like what you see, then please sign up for the premium newsletter for $20 per month or $200 for the whole year. If you sign up today, you can see our two reports, “Your Handy Guide to Stock Orders” and “How Not to Get Screwed on Your Mortgage.”)

  Jay Powell Gives Stocks a Boost

  “August, die she must.” So sang Simon and Garfunkel. Indeed, the month of August is nearly over, and it’s been a slightly negative one for Wall Street. Through Tuesday, the S&P 500 is down 2% for the month. Of course, that’s not a very big drop in any historical context, but it could be our first monthly loss since February.

  Interestingly, when the mini-selloff started at the beginning of the month, growth stocks took much of the heat. That’s standard for a downward market, but then things changed, and it was value suffering the most.

  The S&P 500 even closed below its 50-day moving average for nine days in a row. The streak finally ended today thanks to a nice three-day rally on Wall Street. In fact, the S&P 500 just posted its best three-day run since March.

  

  On Tuesday, the S&P 500 had its best day since June 2. If you want to split hairs, Tuesday’s gain was a millimeter behind the gain from June 2 (1.453% to 1.451%).

  What’s the cause for the late-August optimism? That’s no secret. It was largely due to the Fed Chairman Jerome Powell’s tempered outlook at Jackson Hole this past weekend.

  On the weekend before Labor Day, the Federal Reserve holds its annual powwow in Jackson Hole, WY. On Friday, Jerome Powell gave a speech in which he stressed the need to be vigilant against inflation. That’s pretty much boilerplate for any big Fed conference although he did say that more rate hikes may be coming.

  Powell didn’t give a lot of details, but he did say that the Fed has made considerable progress in fighting inflation. Last summer, the 12-month inflation rate peaked at more than 9%. It’s down by about two-thirds since then. Bear in mind that prices are still rising, just at a slower rate.

  Powell said, “We are prepared to raise rates further if appropriate and intend to hold policy at a restrictive level until we are confident that inflation is moving sustainably down toward our objective.”

  While that sounds tough, it’s noticeably different from last year’s Jackson Hole conference. That’s when Powell made headlines by saying that “some pain” will be needed to confront inflation. That line seriously rattled the markets. In fact, stocks didn’t turn positive until October.

  This year, markets are far more pleased. I think many observers were concerned that Powell would deploy more “some pain”-type of rhetoric. That didn’t happen and stocks and bonds are rallying. Over the last week, the yield on the 10-year Treasury has fallen by 0.2%.

  We don’t have the August inflation numbers yet, but the core inflation rates for both June and July were 0.2%. That’s pretty good. Powell agreed that those numbers are good, but he added that it’s “only the beginning of what it will take to build confidence that inflation is moving down sustainably toward our goal.”

  The Fed is winning the war against inflation, but it’s important to stress that the battle isn’t over just yet.

  

  Another good development is that the Fed has reduced its gigantic balance sheet. The Fed has allowed nearly $1 trillion worth of bonds to roll off since the middle of last year.

  The Fed meets again in three weeks. This will be another meeting where the Fed will update its economic forecasts. For now, the futures markets largely expect another pause from the Fed. That means the central bank will vote to keep its target range for the Fed funds rate at 5.25% to 5.50%. Interest rates haven’t been this high in 22 years.

  After next month’s meeting, things get a little cloudy. The Fed won’t meet again until early November. Right now, it looks to be a tossup on the odds for another rate hike. Futures traders are about evenly divided between a 0.25% rate hike and another rate pause. Obviously, the data between now and then will help tip the balance.

  We can’t say for certain, but this could be end of the Fed’s rate-hiking cycle. Even if there’s another hike or two coming, the long series of hikes is mostly likely past us. Traders currently think there’s a decent shot of a Fed rate cut by May. I’m skeptical but I understand that investors are concerned about future economic growth.

  Higher interest rates have an important influence on investors as they force investors to become more conservative with their portfolios. Cheap money can initially reward foolish ideas. Those rewards often don’t stay for long.

  Better’s SPAC Goes SPLAT

  Speaking of silly behavior, Better.com (BETR) has seen better days. The online mortgage lender went public this week, but not by the traditional route.

  Instead, Better.com’s parent company, Better Home & Finance, merged with Aurora Acquisition Corp. (AURC)

  Never heard of them? Well, you’re not alone. Aurora is a Special Purpose Acquisition Company, better known as a SPAC.

  SPACs are basically shell companies that are already listed on the exchanges. Instead of going public through an IPO, a SPAC will buy an unlisted company thereby making it publicly traded. That way, it skips a lot of bureaucratic steps.

  If you think SPACs are sketchy, I agree. The day before the Better deal, shares of Aurora were trading at $17.44. After the deal, the stock fell to $1.15. Now it’s at 85 cents per share. The SPAC is now a speck.

  

  SPACs were all the rage a few years ago. It’s amazing how low interest rates can make smart people do a lot of silly things. In Q1 of 2021, 278 SPACs hit the market. In Q2 of this year, only four went public. In Q1 of 2021, 98 SPAC deals were announced, but only 100 in the first half of this year.

  Bloomberg notes that there have been 11 SPAC deals this month. Nine of them are in the red. The median loss is 41%. Roughly 40% of the 400 SPACs now trade below $2 per share. Most SPACS started at $10 per share so we’re talking about an 80% loss.

  Better is fighting two headwinds at the same time. It’s a terrible market for SPACs and it’s a lousy market for mortgages. Better is already considered somewhat shady. This is the company that made the news two years ago when it fired 900 employees over Zoom. These aren’t exactly PR geniuses we’re dealing with.

  If that’s not enough, the SEC delayed Better’s SPAC deal until it concluded an investigation to see if it had violated securities law. The SEC ultimately decided against any enforcement action.

  Better is only the latest in a series of SPACs than have gone splat. Shares of WeWork (WE) and Virgin Galactic (SPCE) have both been crushed. Virgin Orbit and Pear Therapeutics both filed for bankruptcy. WeWork may not be far behind.

  It really is all driven by interest rates. When rates are high, the future is expensive, but when rates are low, the future is cheap — and sometimes it gets too cheap.

  That’s all for now. The stock market will be closed on Monday for Labor Day. I’ll have more for you in the next issue of CWS Market Review.

  – Eddy

  P.S. If you want more info on our ETF, you can check out the ETF’s website.

• Morning News: August 29, 2023
  Eddy Elfenbein, August 29th, 2023 at 7:05 am

  China’s Economic Outlook: Pep Talks Up Top, Gloom on the Ground

  China Banks to Cut Rates on Mortgages, Deposits

  Manufacturers Leaving China Find a Home With Indian Startups

  Germany Is Losing Its Mojo. Finding It Again Won’t Be Easy

  Quietly Absorbing One More Fed Hike

  The S&P Just Avoided an Unwanted Statistic. This Is the Next Text

  FDIC Set to Unveil Plan for Stricter Regional Bank Rules

  Citadel Vets 69,000 Intern Applicants to Find Next Math Geniuses

  World’s Hottest Stock Evokes Memories of a $400 Billion Crash

  Goldman Is Selling a Wealth-Advisory Unit to $240 Billion Money Manager

  C.E.O.s Side with New York in the Migrant Crisis

  Move Over, San Francisco: The Suburbs of Silicon Valley Are Calling

  Mortgage Rates at 7% Are Making Everything Worse for US Homebuyers

  More US Firms Offer Student Loan Help to Debt-Burdened Grads

  NIO Earnings Miss Estimates. But There Is Some Good News for Tesla and BYD

  Amazon CEO Andy Jassy Warns Remote Workers: ‘It’s Probably Not Going to Work Out for You’

  3M Board Approves $6 Billion Earplug Settlement

  U.S. Fines American Airlines for Dozens of Long Tarmac Delays

  Subway Foot Traffic Crumbles More than 20% as Sandwich Maker OKs $9.6 Billion Sale

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• Morning News: August 28, 2023
  Eddy Elfenbein, August 28th, 2023 at 7:11 am

  Euro Zone Lending Growth Slows Further as Rate Hikes Bite

  Lagarde Policy Silence Keeps ECB Interest-Rate Debate Raging

  Why Central Bankers Are Unsure Whether They’ve Raised Rates Enough

  China’s 5.5% Stock Rally Fizzles in Blow to Market Rescue Effort

  Evergrande Loses $2 Billion In Value As Trade Resumes; Extends Creditor Voting

  China’s Worsening Economic Slowdown Is Rippling Across the Globe

  Biden’s Commerce Secretary Raimondo Says Trade Can Stabilize US-China Ties

  Apple’s iPhone Supply Chain Splinters Under US-China Tensions

  US-Sino Tensions Help Spawn China Card Game Craze

  Fed’s Inflation Fight, China’s Slowdown Hammer Emerging Markets

  Economists, and Their Comical Search For a Higher ‘Inflation Target’

  Traders Have S&P 500 Comebacks Fading at Historic Pace

  The ‘Fidelity Mafia’ Behind Big Crypto

  Western Banks Help Fund Blacklisted Oligarch’s Charity

  Consumers Are Spending Like It’s 2019

  Auto Union Boss Wants 46% Raise, 32-Hour Work Week in ‘War’ Against Detroit Carmakers

  3M Agrees to Pay More Than $5.5 Billion Over Combat Earplugs

  Owens Corning Appears Insulated From High Rates

  Hawaiian Electric Stock Surges. It’s Fighting Back Against Maui Wildfire Allegations

  Broken Satellite Risks Big Claim in Shrinking Insurance Market

  A.I. Brings the Robot Wingman to Aerial Combat

  Please Support This Ice Maker: Big Manufacturers Try Crowdfunding to Market-Test Products

  The Kingdom of Golf Carts

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• Morning News: August 25, 2023
  Eddy Elfenbein, August 25th, 2023 at 7:00 am

  Argentina’s Milei to Send Team for Investor Talks in New York

  China Stimulus Rally Lasts Just 10 Minutes, Showing Trader Gloom

  US Budget Deficits Are Exploding Like Never Before

  How Jackson Hole Became an Economic Obsession

  One Year Later, Powell Faces a Changed Economy and Market

  Why the Stock Market’s Summer Doldrums Are Not a Problem

  Stockpickers Aren’t Stupid. The Market Is Just Stacked Against Them

  Crypto Is Dead? Or Is That Just ‘Fud’?

  Pro Take: Corporate Venture Capital Provides Path for Long-Term Tech Strategy

  Heineken Sells Russia Business…for $1

  These Are 5 Ways Surging Mortgage Rates Are Reshaping the Housing Market

  Zillow Offers 1% Down Payment to Lure Struggling Homebuyers

  This Is Public Housing. Just Don’t Call It That

  AstraZeneca Fights Back Against Biden’s Move to Cap Drug Prices

  Justice Department Sues SpaceX, Alleging Discrimination Against Refugees

  Wagers on the Weather? Insurers Offer a Way for Businesses to Hedge Climate Risks

  Seafood Is Safe After Fukushima Water Dump, but Some Won’t Eat It

  Coach and Michael Kors Tie-Up Shows Limits of Accessible Luxury

  Shein and Forever 21 Team Up in Fast-Fashion Deal

  New US Private-Jet King Crowned After Cessna Model’s Long Reign

  He Didn’t Start the Fyre

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• Morning News: August 24, 2023
  Eddy Elfenbein, August 24th, 2023 at 7:03 am

  BRICS Asks Saudi, Iran, Other Nations to Join Bloc

  Insiders Say China’s $9 Trillion Debt Problem Is Getting Worse

  How China Made Its Housing Crisis Worse

  Turkey’s Central Bank Raises Rates More Quickly Than Expected

  How Jackson Hole Became an Economic Obsession

  Powell Is Using Jackson Hole as Final Push in Inflation Fight

  Bank Boardrooms Need More Experts on Nature-Related Risks

  KKR’s Latest Bankruptcy Deal Is a Bad Omen for Lenders

  In Quest for Battery Metals, U.S. Takes On Cobalt’s ‘Inconvenient Truth’

  How High a Rate Can Housing Take?

  The U.S. Regulates Cars, Radio and TV. When Will It Regulate A.I.?

  Nvidia Nears Record High as AI Demand Fuels Blowout Forecast

  In Reversal Because of A.I., Office Jobs Are Now More at Risk

  Sandwich Chain Subway Agrees to Sell Itself to Roark Capital

  Shein Strikes Deal With Forever 21

  Facing Backlash, Nike Says It Will Offer Star Soccer Goalie’s Jersey

  Michael Jordan Is the Richest Basketball Player Ever With $3.5 Billion Fortune

  Elon Musk Is Acting Like He Wants to Break His Own Company

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• Morning News: August 23, 2023
  Eddy Elfenbein, August 23rd, 2023 at 7:08 am

  Slide in Euro Zone Service Sector Sharpens ECB’s Rates Dilemma

  The Hottest Jobs in Argentina Are the Ones That Pay in Dollars

  Can Shrinking Be Good for Japan? A Marxist Best Seller Makes the Case

  China Tries to Increase Its Clout in Africa Amid Rivalry With the U.S.

  Oil Slides on Grim Manufacturing Data

  The Race to Ditch Russian Uranium Starts in New Mexico’s Desert

  The BRICS and Their Dollar Dilemma

  Recession Fears Have Been ‘Blown Out of the Water,’ Long-Serving Fed President Says

  US SEC Readies Vote on Regulatory Overhaul for Private Funds

  Bank of America Trading Desks Gain Ground With More Capital

  With ‘Everybody Else’ Dead or Gone, One California Bank Thrives

  US Mortgage Rates Jump to 7.31%, Highest Level Since Late 2000

  Youngest Baby Boomers’ Pay in the US Peaked When They Hit 45

  Goldman Sachs Cancels ‘Summer Fridays,’ Wants Staff in Office Five Days a Week

  U.S. Steel, United Steelworkers Square Off on Takeover

  UPS Employees Approve New Contract, Averting Strike

  Bankrupt Trucker Yellow’s Real Estate Is in High Demand

  Ford CEO Jim Farley and his $300,000 Mustang are Gunning for Porsche

  Foot Locker’s Stock Tumbles 31% as Company Suspends Dividend after Swinging to a Loss

  Peloton Gives Downbeat Forecast as Comeback Remains Elusive

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• CWS Market Review – August 22, 2023
  Eddy Elfenbein, August 22nd, 2023 at 6:51 pm

  (This is the free version of CWS Market Review. If you like what you see, then please sign up for the premium newsletter for $20 per month or $200 for the whole year. If you sign up today, you can see our two reports, “Your Handy Guide to Stock Orders” and “How Not to Get Screwed on Your Mortgage.”)

  China’s Growth Model Hits the Wall

  Americans have been unnerved by the recent rise in mortgage rates. According to Freddie Mac, the average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage is now over 7%. That’s a 21-year high.

  On Tuesday, the existing-home sales report said that sales in July were down 2.2% from sales in June. Compared with one year ago, sales are off by more than 16%. This was the slowest July since 2010.

  

  Last month, there were only 1.11 million homes on the market. That’s tiny. For context, that’s about half as many homes as were on the market before Covid, and it’s the lowest number in nearly a quarter of a century.

  As rough as those numbers are, they’re peanuts compared with what’s happening in China. That country’s real estate sector appears to be going through a full core meltdown, and the damage isn’t limited to real estate. It’s starting to get folks to wonder if China’s entire model for economic growth is flat-out wrong.

  The Chinese economy used to be the gem of the Far East and a global growth superpower. Not anymore. The country is mired in debt, and it’s addicted to overbuilding.

  For four decades, the Chinese economy roared ahead. We heard countless stories about China’s emergence as a global superpower. We even heard from some observers in the West that China provided a blueprint for future development. Soon, we were told, China would replace the United States as the world’s largest economy.

  The old playbook was simple: borrow and build. When in doubt, borrow and build. That was followed by even more borrowing and even more building. To help spur all the borrowing, Chinese state banks set rates artificially low. Now China has millions of apartments with no tenants and cities with no people. Even some small cities have multiple airports.

  Don’t get me wrong. The borrow-and-build model is a great idea, but it needs two things. One is tons and tons of Western money pouring in. The other is rising prices. As long as you have those, there’s nothing to worry about.

  Once the reverse happens, then things get bad. Really bad.

  On Monday, the People’s Bank of China (i.e., the Chinese Fed), responded to the real estate mess by, what else, cutting interest rates. The problem was that the cut was only by 0.1% which was less than expected. In fact, a lot of observers ignored it as a token gesture, which it is.

  The benchmark for one-year corporate loans fell from 3.55% to 3.45% while the benchmark for five-year loans was unchanged at 4.2%.

  That’s not enough to do the trick. The ultimate judge on any policy is how the markets react, and traders didn’t like the puny rate cut. The Hang Seng Index, which is based in Hong Kong, fell 1.8%. It’s now down more than 12% this month. The yuan recently hit a 16-year low.

  

  The real estate mess is bad and it’s getting worse. Country Garden is the latest to run into trouble. The developer “has hundreds of billions of dollars in unpaid bills,” and it just got booted off the Hang Seng.

  Not that long ago, Country Garden was hailed as the model company. The New York Times notes that, “More than 50 developers have already defaulted or stopped paying on overseas bonds.” They’ve simply run out of money.

  So much of China’s economy revolves around real estate. In July, new-home sales in China were down by one-third from last year. In June, new home sales were off by 28%.

  For years, millions of Chinese citizens moved from rural areas into big cities. In response, the country built massive amounts of urban housing. They struggled to meet demand. They built way too much and now demand has plunged.

  It’s not just housing. The government has spent billions of dollars trying to make a world-class independent semiconductor industry. That hasn’t worked out. In terms of sophistication, their chips are still way behind Taiwan’s.

  China’s problems don’t end there. Two weeks ago, I told you about how the American and Chinese economies are being decoupled. That’s threatening China’s foreign investment and trade. Now economists are concerned about China’s future.

  What will the future look like? The International Monetary Fund puts China’s GDP growth at below 4% in the coming years, less than half of its tally for most of the past four decades. Capital Economics, a London-based research firm, figures China’s trend growth has slowed to 3% from 5% in 2019, and will fall to around 2% in 2030.

  In 2020, President Xi Jinping said his goal was to double China’s economy by 2035. That looks like it won’t happen. Nor is China about to dethrone America as the world’s largest economy.

  Normally, if you want to get an economy moving, you can try boosting credit and leverage your way forward. China is at the point where it can’t do that anymore.

  Truthfully, cracks have been showing in China’s economy for some time. Covid just sped things up. China’s explosive housing market helped masked the problems that had been growing just beneath the surface. Now the housing bubble has popped.

  The outlook has darkened considerably in recent months. Manufacturing activity has contracted, exports have declined, and youth unemployment has reached record highs. One of the country’s largest surviving property developers, Country Garden Holdings, is on the cusp of a possible default as the overall economy slips into deflation.

  The big fear is that China won’t merely slow down but that it will enter a multi-decade period of low growth similar to what Japan’s been through. There is, however, one major difference. When Japan hit the wall, it was already rich. China isn’t nearly as developed.

  800 Million Have Been Lifted Out of Poverty

  Another fear is that a weaker economy might lead to a more aggressive foreign policy. That may already be happening. President Biden recently said that China’s economy is a “ticking time bomb” that will cause it to do “do bad things.” That didn’t exactly go over well in Beijing.

  Youth unemployment is so bad that the government has stopped reporting the numbers. The last report was for June. It said that the jobless rate for urban 16 to 24-year-olds was 21.3%.

  The growth story dates back to 1978 when Deng Xiaoping opened China’s economy to free enterprise. It’s hard for us today to imagine how poor and backward China was. Millions of Chinese lived as peasants, not very different from how their ancestors lived.

  According to numbers from the World Bank, since the free market reforms, China’s per capita has increased 25-fold, and 800 million people have been lifted out of poverty.

  Forty-five years later, China has massive ghost cities. It’s estimated that 20% of China’s urban apartments are vacant. That’s 130 million units. They’ve built cities that no one lives in, and airports and rail networks that no one uses.

  The borrow-and-build philosophy has already picked the low-hanging fruit. Now the return on investment in China is far lower. Instead of facing the problem, the government has encouraged even more borrowing. In ten years, China’s total debt has grown from 200% of GDP to 300% of GDP.

  Here’s a chart of the yuan to the dollar:

  

  There is an obvious solution to China’s problem: make the economy more balanced. For that, it needs to promote its consumer sector. That means that Chinese consumers need to spend more and save less. The problem with that is that the government would have to give up some control over the economy and replace it with individual choice. That kind of thinking doesn’t come easy to the Chinese Communist Party.

  The big worry is that China’s problems will spill over into the United States, but for now, I think that’s very unlikely.

  This may sound odd, but the U.S. economy really isn’t heavily exposed to China. Of course, we’re talking about very large sums.

  The U.S. currently has about $215 billion in direct investment in China and about $300 billion in portfolio investment. Paul Krugman points out that U.S. office buildings are worth about $2.6 trillion which is about five times our total investment in China.

  What about demand from China? That’s not that big, either. Last year, China bought about $150 billion worth of goods from us. That’s less than 1% of our GDP. That means a downturn in China will barely be felt in the U.S. As troubling as the mess in China is, we don’t have much to be fearful of.

  That’s all for now. I’ll have more for you in the next issue of CWS Market Review.

  – Eddy

  P.S. If you want more info on our ETF, you can check out the ETF’s website.

• Morning News: August 22, 2023
  Eddy Elfenbein, August 22nd, 2023 at 7:07 am

  Pressure to Revive Economy Muddies Earnings Outlook for China’s Top Banks

  China Ramps Up Fight With Yuan Bears

  Why It’s So Hard for China to Fix Its Real Estate Crisis

  Commerce Secretary to Visit China Next Week in Bid to Steady Ties

  How Hard Should the Fed Squeeze to Reach 2% Inflation?

  S&P Joins Moody’s in Cutting US Banks

  Becoming a Bank Proves Challenging for Fintechs Seeking Survival

  Deepfake Imposter Scams Are Driving a New Wave of Fraud

  New U.S. Buyback Tax Hits Companies With $3.5 Billion Burden

  Half a Million US Jobs at Risk of Vanishing in Payroll Revision

  Sorry, But LinkedIn Is Cool Now

  Microsoft Pushes to Get Activision Deal Done With Fresh UK Offer

  Goodbye Bathtub and Living Room. America’s Homes Are Shrinking

  Some Americans Take On Side Hustles for Fertility Benefits

  America’s Farmers Are Bogged Down by Data

  A Warlord With a Cocaine Empire Is Saving the Amazon Rainforest

  Southern African Bloc Backs $17 Billion Gas Infrastructure Plan

  Profit From America’s Manufacturing Renaissance With Rockwell Automation

  Lowe’s Sticks By Full-Year Earnings Forecast Despite Weakening Sales, as Spring Projects Offer a Boost

  Gap’s Discount Is Too Big to Ignore

  Dick’s Sporting Goods Blames Theft for Profit Woes

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