A meeting between President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping is "highly unlikely" before the March 2 deadline for reaching a trade deal, according to a senior administration official. While Trump and Xi are still expected to meet, there's too much work to do to flesh out a deal with China and prepare Trump for a high-stakes meeting with North Korea's Kim Jong Un. Trump's summit with Kim is set for Feb. 27-28.READ MORE...

Stocks are booming because investors care a lot more about corporate profits on Wall Street than any drama in Washington.READ MORE...

Even with the recent government shutdown, Social Security recipients kept getting paid.Because many retirees get almost all of their income from the benefit checks, it's essential to know exactly when they'll come in. READ MORE...

As the FOMC were in the process of reversing multiple years of near zero interest rates, the path back to rate ‘normalization’ was communicated relatively clearly to the public.So throughout the last few years, the number and timing of Fed Funds rate hikes was never a surprise. READ MORE...

January’s super strong jobs report and a solid manufacturing survey on Friday showed that recession worries may be overblown and slowdown fears are not impacting corporate hiring or dampening manufacturers’ sentiment.READ MORE...

The average net addition to workforce for the last three months is now 241,000 jobs — which is an acceleration in job growth. The leisure and hospitality sector, which hired 74,000 employees, led the job gains for the month.Construction and health care added 52,000 and 42,000 jobs respectively. In January, average hourly earnings for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls increased by 3 cents to $27.56, following a 10-cent gain in December.

The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq came under pressure from weakness in technology stocks ahead of Apple’s results on Tuesday, while a rebound in industrial stocks lifted the Dow.READ MORE...

stocks fell on Monday as weak forecasts from Caterpillar Inc and Nvidia Corp fueled worries about a slowdown in China taking a bigger bite off corporate profits.READ MORE...

The U.S. economy lost at least $6 billion during the partial shutdown of the federal government due to lost productivity from furloughed workers and economic activity lost to outside business, S&P Global Ratings said on Friday.READ MORE...

President Donald Trump’s tax cut package is apparently yet to produce a substantial boost in business spending, as suggested by a recent survey result. According to the National Association of Business Economics' (NABE) quarterly business conditions poll published on Monday, 84% of respondents indicated that corporate tax cuts did not lead them to change plans.That percentage is even bigger compared to the 81% in the survey published in October. The $1.5 trillion cut tax package – which included a reduction of corporate tax rate to 21% from 35% - is the largest U.S. tax code overhaul in more than three decades.

The number of Americans filing applications for unemployment benefits fell to more than a 49-year low last week, but the drop likely overstates the health of the labor market as claims for several states including California were estimated.READ MORE...

Barclays economists said on Wednesday they reduced their outlook on U.S. economic growth in the first quarter to an annualized rate of 2.5 percent from an earlier projection of 3.0 percent as a result of the historically long partial federal government shutdown.READ MORE...

IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde warned the "risk of a sharper decline in global growth has certainly increased," but also indicated that the headwind is unlikely to snowball into a global recession anytime soon.China’s macroeconomic slowdown amidst U.S. tariffs was mentioned as a potent cause of concern about global markets and economies. The IMF projects the U.S. economy to grow at 2.5% in 2019 followed by a slower 1.8% in 2020.  

NEW YORK (Reuters) - World stock indexes jumped on Friday, with Wall Street posting a fourth straight week of gains, and the dollar had its first positive week since mid-December as optimism increased that an end is in sight to the U.S.-China trade conflict. READ MORE...

Despite a strong rally in stock prices that has restored some confidence in the market, Goldman Sachs is advising investors to build their levels of cash now."The potential exists for further equity market downside in the near term even if the recent equity market collapse does not lead to a recession,” says Goldman's recent Macroscope report, pointing out that cash positions are at their lowest in 30 years. READ MORE...

Markets from equities to high-yield bonds that have been flashing warning signs are probably an overreaction to slowing growth rather than a precursor of imminent recession, according to J.P. Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon.READ MORE...

The unemployment rate, however, spiked a bit to 3.9% for the month, compared to November’s record low 3.7%. Average hourly earnings rose by +0.4% over last month – edging past expectation of +0.3%.On a year-over-year basis, wages increased by +3.2%, which is higher than estimates of +3%. The figures seems to suggest that the U.S. labor market continues to show strength amidst potential headwinds like trade uncertainties alongwith concerns related to monetary tightening and stock market correction/volatility.

The final month of the year brought no joy for Wall Street with the S&P 500 losing 10.9% on renewed global growth worries, Fed’s policy tightening and the government shutdown.Though markets saw the biggest single-day jump on Boxing Day since 2009, most of the dissuading factors are still in place (read: Alternative ETFs See Solid Volume: Are Investors Still Shaky?). READ MORE...

Apple stock price inched up +1.9%. Wednesday's rebound comes after the worst Christmas Eve plunge: the S&P 500 entered the bear territory on Monday.Monday’s sell-offs followed reports of Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin holding calls with  major U.S. banks last weekend and issuing a statement saying, "The banks all confirmed ample liquidity is available for lending to consumer and business markets."

The DOJ alleged that the hackers worked in collaboration with China's state security service. According to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, the hackers belong to a group called  Advanced Persistent Threat 10 or APT 10, and that they nicked data from more than 45 U.S. companies.Hackers might also have attacked data of more than 100,000 U.S. Navy personnel, including the latter’s Social Security numbers, dates of birth, salary information, personal phone numbers, and email addresses – according to the DOJ. Cybersecurity firms including CrowdStrike have linked the hacker group’s activity to China's Ministry of State Security.