As trade tensions with the U.S. intensified, China sold off its Treasury holdings at the fastest pace in about two years during March. The largest foreign owner of U.S. debt reduced the level by just shy of $20.5 billion, a slight decrease that brought the total holdings down to $1.12 trillion. 

When it comes to his position on the U.S.-China trade dispute, President Donald Trump is still playing the role of a riverboat gambler on a hot streak. Nearly a year ago, Trump was pressed, during a CNBC interview, to explain his aggressive tariff strategy both against China and other partners around the world.The S&P 500 was up nearly 5% for the year as of the July 20 appearance, and the large-cap index had risen 31% since his election victory in 2016.

A Federal Reserve projection on economic growth just weakened substantially, and expectations for a rate cut over the next eight months got a lot stronger. The Atlanta Fed’s closely watched GDPNow tracker is pointing to a 1.1% gain for the economy in the second quarter, according to a revision posted Wednesday.

Consumer and industrial activity in both the U.S. and China slowed in April, even before the world’s two biggest economies entered the latest phase of an escalating trade war that could take a bite out of global growth.

U.S.consumer prices rose in April but underlying inflation remained muted, suggesting the Federal Reserve could keep interest rates unchanged for a while.

President Donald Trump said Thursday that tariffs are an "excellent" alternative to a trade deal with China, hours before Chinese officials were set to meet U.S. trade negotiators later in Washington.READ MORE...

President Donald Trump said Thursday that tariffs are an "excellent" alternative to a trade deal with China, hours before Chinese officials were set to meet U.S. trade negotiators later in Washington.READ MORE...

U.S.President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that China “broke the deal” it had reached in trade talks with the United States, and vowed not to back down on imposing new tariffs on Chinese imports unless Beijing “stops cheating our workers.”  

China had backtracked on commitments in trade talks, prompting U.S. President Donald Trump to threaten additional tariffs over the weekend, but Washington would be willing to keep talking if the Chinese changed position, top U.S. trade officials said on Monday. Read more...

Analysts expected nonfarm payroll growth of 185,000 jobs, and the market didn’t disappoint.The national employment metric grew from 196,000 in March to 263,000 in April, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Read More...  

U.S.manufacturing activity slowed to a 2-1/2-year low in April as new orders dropped while construction spending unexpectedly fell in March, suggesting economic growth was moderating after surging in the first quarter. One of the reports from the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) showed businesses increasingly anxious that President Donald Trump’s threats to close the U.S.-Mexico boarder would further disrupt the supply chain. The Federal Reserve kept U.S. interest rates unchanged on Wednesday, noting solid economic growth in the first quarter, and also holding out hope that inflation will rise toward the U.S. central bank’s 2% target.

The U.S. Federal Reserve on Wednesday held interest rates steady and signaled little appetite to adjust them any time soon, taking heart in continued job gains and economic growth and the likelihood that weak inflation will edge higher. Read more...

Long before he became a billionaire, Ray Dalio was a successful investor as a pre-teen. Dalio now heads Bridgewater Associates, the world’s largest hedge fund with roughly $160 billion in assets.But when he was only 12 years old in the early 1960s, Dalio just wanted somewhere to invest the money he’d earned caddying on a golf course and everyone he knew was talking up the stock market.

Federal Reserve officials voted to hold interest rates steady Wednesday, as a lack of inflation pressure outweighed an economy that otherwise is growing strongly. The central bank held its benchmark rate in a target between 2.25% and 2.5%, meeting market expectations though perhaps disappointing President Donald Trump, who earlier this week urged the Fed to cut the rate by 1 percentage point.READ MORE...

Wells Fargo Securities’ Christopher Harvey no longer holds the distinction of Wall Street’s biggest bear. He’s now officially one of its biggest bulls. The firm’s head of equity strategy raised his S&P 500 year-end price target Tuesday to 3,088, a 16% jump above his prior forecast of 2,665.READ MORE...

The S&P 500 reached an all-time high on Monday, but the session’s gains were kept in check as investors braced for a busy week including a flurry of corporate earnings reports, economic data and an announcement from the Federal Reserve.READ MORE..

President Donald Trump, in his most brazen attack yet on the Federal Reserve, called for the central bank on Tuesday to cut interest rates by 1 percentage point and to implement more money-printing quantitative easing.READ MORE...

The Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation gauge showed no change in March and remained well below the central bank’s target, a government report Monday showed.At the same time, consumer spending surged amid a jump in expenditures on motor vehicles and health care.

Wall Street veteran Jim Paulsen believes stocks could continue to surge well past their recent recovery to the all-time highs that were last seen before the late-2018 market collapse.READ MORE...

U.S.consumer spending increased by the most in more than 9-1/2 years in March, but price pressures remained muted, with a key inflation measure posting its smallest annual gain in 14 months. Read more...