ECONOMICS

While middle-market retailers brace for a slowdown, luxury’s upper echelon continues to soar – underscoring a growing economic divide that may prove as precarious as it is profitable.

Photo: Hollie Adams/Bloomberg News

Signs of strain are increasingly visible among mass-market players. Retail giants like Target and Macy’s are reporting that their customers are pulling back, trading down to less expensive alternatives as tariffs and inflation weigh on household budgets. But (more…)

Authored by Lance Roberts via RealInvestmentAdvice.com,

While coming in much stronger than expected, the latest employment data confirmed what we already suspected: the economy is slowing. The reason the employment data is so important is that without employment growth, the economy stalls. It takes, on average, about 200,000 jobs each month to keep up with population growth, which ultimately keeps the economy growing. That is because, as discussed in last week’s #BullBearReport, (more…)

US tariffs on most Chinese goods are currently holding at 145%, but were not applied to goods transported by cargo ships already at sea.  This means that many of the products still flowing through US ports do not require companies to pay extra duties.  This is about to change, however, as the last ships from China that are free from tariff charges are now finally arriving to the West Coast.

The effects of the tariffs are already hitting China like a sledgehammer.  Numerous companies have (more…)