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    Wharton’s Jeremy Siegel says it’s ‘scandalous’ the U.S. doesn’t have a rare earths reserve

    UNITED STATES – NOVEMBER 10: Jeremy Siegel, the Russell E. Palmer Professor of Finance at the Wharton School, addresses the Securities Industry Association during their annual meeting in Boca Raton, Florida, Thursday, November 10, 2005. 
    Matt Stroshane | Bloomberg | Getty Images

    China’s control over crucial rare earth materials has been a “threat for a long time” to Western supply chains and the U.S. should create a strategic reserve of the metals, University of Pennsylvania professor emeritus of finance Jeremy Siegel told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” Monday.
    “It’s scandalous that we don’t have a rare earth strategic reserve [and] that we let China monopolize 90% of refining rare earth materials,” Siegel said. “Where were we, realizing the importance of these?”

    Siegel’s strategic reserve proposal comes as the U.S.-China trade war intensified Friday, with President Donald Trump vowing to impose “massive tariffs” on Beijing in response to its limits on rare earth mineral exports to the U.S., and threatening to cancel a planned meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Trump’s announcement erased $2 trillion in value from the stock market.
    The U.S. created the Strategic Petroleum Reserve in 1975 in response to the 1973 Arab Oil Embargo.
    Today, almost three quarters of the world’s rare earth minerals, used in everything from smartphones to fighter jets, are mined in China, which processes 90% of the metals, according to Bank of America analysts.
    “Export controls could create a choke point in global supply chains,” BofA global economist Claudio Irigoyen wrote Sunday in a note to clients.
    But Siegel said he’s confident the U.S. and China will resolve their latest trade conflict before Trump’s Nov. 1 deadline for more tariffs.   

    “It’ll be worked out, and it won’t be too negative for either country,” Siegel said. Trump’s remarks were “just a prelude to saying, ‘All right there are our chips, we’ve got cards [and] you’ve got cards…and let’s negotiate.'”
    Siegel, author of 1994’s Stocks for the Long Run, said the November 1 deadline is actually a sign that Trump hopes to negotiate with his Chinese counterpart.
     “Trump said 100% [tariffs] but he said, ‘Listen, I said the November 1 date, which for me is like forever,'” Siegel said. “It’s actually the farthest date he’s ever set for the start of a tariff, which means he wants to have that solved.” 
    Siegel added that the market will likely snap back following trade talks between Washington D.C. and Beijing. The S&P 500 is about 1.2% higher in early trading Monday after crumbling 2.7% on Friday.
    “Once it’s resolved, given all the other good things that are happening, I see no reason why we can’t continue on to new highs,” Siegel said.
    The S&P 500 is regaining some 40% of its Friday losses early Monday, while the Nasdaq Composite has climbed about 2% as technology stocks rebound from last week’s retreat. More

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    How Lego MRI scanner sets are reducing anxiety in children undergoing medical treatment

    Lego’s MRI scanner play sets, which launched in 2023, are significantly reducing anxiety and the use of sedation in children, the company said.
    New research from Lego shows that 96% of healthcare professionals said the model helps to reduce children’s anxiety before entering a scanner themselves.
    One patient told CNBC the play set has helped him to get accustomed to the claustrophobia of scanners and help other kids learn the same.

    People depart a Lego store in Manhattan on August 29, 2024 in New York City. 
    Spencer Platt | Getty Images

    In July 2023, just two months after his mother fought and won a battle against breast cancer, Sam Lane began to get sick.
    Sam underwent several rounds of testing, and the now 14-year-old finally received a diagnosis: a rare brain and spine cancer.

    “They said ‘cancer,’ and before I started crying, I said, ‘Dang it, I was going to guess that, but I didn’t want it to be that bad,'” Sam said.
    But at his lowest point, on a feeding tube and unable to walk, a nurse offered Sam a bright spot: She said she needed his help to build a Lego MRI scanner set for fellow patients at Boston Children’s Hospital to play with and learn from.
    Sam’s mom said she was “blown away” by the level of detail in the play set, made of specialized Lego bricks.
    “I remember sitting there saying to him, ‘Sammy, why don’t you take a break? You’ve been working at that straight for some time,'” Christina Lane said. “And he just didn’t even look at me and was like, ‘Nope, this is important… I need to help other kids.'”
    Lego’s MRI scanner sets, which feature a scanner, patient bed, waiting room, staff figures and medical instruments, were designed specifically to help children learn about the procedure through hands-on play. The miniature MRI machine table moves back and forth, mimicking a real procedure.

    On Monday, the toy company announced that more than 1 million children globally have used the sets to help them prepare for their medical procedures. New Lego research found that 96% of healthcare professionals said the model helps to reduce children’s anxiety, and 46% reported a lesser need to use sedation after the children played with the set.

    Lego MRI Scanner play set
    Courtesy: Lego

    MRIs, which don’t involve radiation, are often used in pediatric care – but with the bright light, loud noises and requirement to stay still, the machines often frighten children and introduce the need for sedation, according to Sam’s child life specialists, Laura Boegler and Alyssa Sachs.
    They focus on ways to support psychosocial and emotional wellbeing of patients and families at Boston Children’s Hospital and said opportunities to play are key.
    “We often say that play is a universal language, and so the play-based approach of being able to touch and ask questions really helps ease anxieties and misconceptions that any kids have,” Sachs said.
    Boegler said having children play with the Lego set before their own MRI scans has significantly helped decrease anxiety and increase familiarity with the procedure.
    The set that Sam built is being used to ease other patients’ worries in a way that feels authentic to them.
    “An MRI machine, that’s not something that kids are seeing in school, that’s not what they’re talking about at home, so it’s kind of like this new scary thing,” Boegler said. “Using the MRI Lego set, we’re able to show kids in a way that’s comfortable for them.”
    Lego doesn’t sell the sets and instead has donated more than 10,000 of the kits to hospitals around the world.
    Over the past few years, Lego has worked on expanding its customer base and deepened its strategy to achieve a streak of positive annual growth. The company has begun to cater more to adults as well as kids with more sophisticated and bespoke kits, including a wide range of sets aligned with pop culture like “Harry Potter” to “Wicked.”
    The company’s botanical and F1 racing sets, in particular, have brought new customers into the fold.

    Icons Tiny Plants by Lego.
    James Manning – Pa Images | Pa Images | Getty Images

    Christina Lane said the MRI play set her son built helped him feel connected to other children battling cancer.
    “To have a little Lego buddy that they can identify with that is going through the same things that they are is really incredible,” she said. “As a mom, as a nurse, as a human being, to be able to support our kids during such a challenging and difficult time through play – truly, it’s essential.”
    And the set has even helped Sam in his own journey. Now celebrating over a year cancer-free, he reflected on how his relationship with the machines has changed.
    In his first MRI, Sam said he felt claustrophobic and scared, and the noises felt too loud for him to comprehend.
    But now, he has a simple and reliable strategy for all of his MRI sessions: “I fall asleep.”
    Correction: This story has been updated to correct details of Sam Lane’s cancer diagnosis and treatment. More

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    JPMorgan Chase says it will invest $10 billion into industries critical for national security

    JPMorgan Chase on Monday said it is launching a decade-long plan to help finance and take direct stakes in companies it considers crucial to U.S. interests.
    The bank said in a statement it would invest up to $10 billion into companies in four areas: defense and aerospace, “frontier” technologies including AI and quantum computing, energy technology including batteries, and supply chain and advanced manufacturing.
    That is part of its broader effort, dubbed the Security and Resiliency Initiative, in which JPMorgan said it will finance or facilitate $1.5 trillion in funding for companies it identifies as crucial, an amount is said was 50% more than a previous plan.

    JPMorgan Chase on Monday said it is launching a decade-long plan to help finance and take direct stakes in companies it considers crucial to U.S. interests.
    The bank said in a statement it would invest up to $10 billion into companies in four areas: defense and aerospace, “frontier” technologies including artificial intelligence and quantum computing, energy technology including batteries, and supply chain and advanced manufacturing.

    The money is part of a broader effort, dubbed the Security and Resiliency Initiative, in which JPMorgan said it will finance or facilitate $1.5 trillion in funding for companies it identifies as crucial. It said the total amount is 50% more than a previous plan.
    “It has become painfully clear that the United States has allowed itself to become too reliant on unreliable sources of critical minerals, products and manufacturing — all of which are essential for our national security,” JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon said in the release.
    As the biggest American bank by assets and a Wall Street juggernaut, JPMorgan was already raising funds and lending money to companies in those industries. But the move helps organize the company’s activities around national interests at a time of heightened tensions between the U.S. and China.
    On Friday, markets tumbled as President Donald Trump announced new tariffs on Chinese imports after the major U.S. trading partner tightened export controls on rare earths.
    In the release, Dimon said the U.S. needs to “remove obstacles” including excessive regulations, “bureaucratic delay” and “partisan gridlock.”

    JPMorgan said that within the four major areas, there were 27 specific industries it would look to support with advice, financing and investments. That includes areas as diverse as nanomaterials, autonomous robots, spacecraft and space launches, and nuclear and solar power.
    “Our security is predicated on the strength and resiliency of America’s economy,” Dimon said. “This new initiative includes efforts like ensuring reliable access to life-saving medicines and critical minerals, defending our nation, building energy systems to meet AI-driven demand and advancing technologies like semiconductors and data centers.”
    The bank said it would hire an unspecified numbers of bankers and create an external advisory council to support its initiative.
    This story is developing. Please check back for updates. More

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    Retaliation or escalation? Trust between the U.S. and China is fading fast, analysts say

    “The root cause of the tension is due to a lack of mutual trust,” Larry Hu, chief China economist at Macquarie, said in a note Monday.
    Hu and other analysts describe the announcements of the last few days as a “misperception” on both sides.
    “On the specific episode the market is focused on, the two sides may still return to the table to find a short-term fix. However, it won’t be a lasting solution,” said Jianwei Xu, senior economist for Greater China at Natixis.

    Chinese and U.S. flags flutter near The Bund, before U.S. trade delegation meet their Chinese counterparts for talks in Shanghai, China July 30, 2019.
    Aly Song | Reuters

    BEIJING — The flare-up in tensions between the U.S. and China over the weekend highlights the deepening mistrust dividing the world’s two biggest economies.
    In the two days after Beijing ended its Golden Week holiday on Wednesday, the country announced a new framework for restricting rare earths exports, placed more U.S. companies on a blacklist and charged U.S.-linked ships with fees for docking at Chinese ports.

    U.S. President Donald Trump then threatened 100% more tariffs on Chinese goods, a move which was followed by Beijing asserting its rare earths restrictions are a “legitimate” measure.
    “The root cause of the tension is due to a lack of mutual trust,” Larry Hu, chief China economist at Macquarie, said in a note Monday.
    “During the London talks in June, both countries agreed to a deal involving ‘rare earth for tech,'” he said. “Unsurprisingly, both feel betrayed when they perceive the other as acting in bad faith.”
    The escalation in trade tensions is a result of a “misperception” on both sides, Hu said. Here’s how he and other analysts say both sides are seeing things differently.
    Beijing may feel it needs to respond to a new U.S. rule released on Sept. 29 which expands the scope of export controls to majority owned subsidiaries of companies on a U.S. list — while Washington likely saw the change as a technical adjustment.

    On the flip side, Beijing may see its rare earths restrictions as mimicking Washington’s wide-reaching effort to restrict China’s access to high-end tech, while the U.S. perception is that the restrictions are a negotiation strategy that aims to create leverage before a potential meeting between the two countries’ presidents.

    U.S. chipmakers at risk

    There’s a clear impact for businesses, reflected in part by Friday’s stock market sell-off.
    “One rule in the new package requires that companies obtain a license from China’s Commerce Ministry to export products manufactured anywhere in the world if that product contains Chinese rare earths worth at least 0.1% of the product’s value,” Gabriel Wildau, managing director at Teneo, said in a note Saturday. “In theory, this rule could force companies like Nvidia, TSMC and Intel to obtain permission from Chinese regulators to sell their products inside the U.S.”
    Wildau pointed out that “this Chinese rule is modeled after the U.S. Commerce Department’s own ‘foreign direct product rule,’ which imposes a license requirement on any product made with U.S. origin technology, no matter where the product is produced.”
    Chinese stocks fell Monday following the U.S. stock market decline, although U.S. stock futures rebounded on hopes the tensions weren’t as bad as initially feared.
    “On the specific episode the market is focused on, the two sides may still return to the table to find a short-term fix. However, it won’t be a lasting solution,” said Jianwei Xu, senior economist for Greater China at Natixis. “The trust between them is already gone.”
    Trump has signaled he would meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the APEC meeting in South Korea at the end of October. China has yet to confirm or deny such plans.
    The view from within the Asian country is that the U.S. will maintain its pressure on China, even as the two countries’ leaders are expected to meet, said Liu Weidong, research fellow at a state-affiliated think tank, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences’ Institute of American Studies.
    “History has shown that U.S. pressure is ineffective, and will only lead to a more confrontational relationship between China and the U.S.,” Liu said in comments translated by CNBC.
    He cast the latest rare earths restrictions as a demonstration of China’s efforts to warn “unfriendly” foreign companies while welcoming others, and as an attempt to maintain bilateral stability through “moderate and controlled countermeasures.”
    Trump and Xi spoke over the phone last month, but have yet to meet in person since the U.S. leader began his term in January. Trump previously indicated that he might visit China next year, followed by Xi traveling to the U.S.
    The two countries are still negotiating since the effective dates for some of the announced measures are set for after the APEC summit in South Korea, said Nomura’s Chief China Economist Ting Lu.
    “Despite mounting tensions, there remain opportunities for diplomatic resolution, as the timeline creates a strategic buffer: Trump’s tariff implementation, which is scheduled for 1 November, precedes Beijing’s 1 December deadline for rare-earth export restrictions by a full month.” More

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    Why the ultra-rich are giving up on luxury assets

    A BOTTLE OF Château d’Yquem 2010 is a fine thing. Apricot, toasted almond, citrus zest, juicy lemon, white truffles: it is all there. Until recently, the cost of the world’s finest sweet wine rose steadily. By 2023 a given bottle from the producer went for 60% more than in the mid-2010s. At the time, all forms of opulence were becoming more expensive. Classic cars, aged whiskies and enormous mansions shot up in value. From 2015 to 2023 a “luxury-investment index” produced by Knight Frank, a property firm, rose by 70%. More

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    New tariff threats crush stocks during a big week for Nvidia and key portfolio moves

    Wall Street’s weekly performance was near the flat line heading into Friday. Things started OK on the final trading day of the week, until President Donald Trump ‘s new China trade threats tanked the stock market. The S & P 500 lost 2.71% on Friday — the worst single-session decline since April 10, the day after soaring on the White House pausing “reciprocal” tariffs. For the week, the index sank 2.43%. The Nasdaq also suffered its worst day since April 10, losing 3.56% on Friday. It sank 2.53% for the week. .SPX 5D mountain S & P 500 weekly performance After Friday’s close, Trump followed up his broader morning social media warning with an announcement of an extra 100% tariff on imports from China, saying the duties will be “over and above any tariff that they are currently paying.” He also added export controls on “critical software.” Both are set to begin Nov. 1. The president said the moves were being made to “financially counter” new export controls that China imposed on rare earths — these are key elements needed in the modern-day production of everything from iPhones to missiles. In another dose of uncertainty for markets, earlier on Friday, the 10th day of the government shutdown, the Trump administration started laying off federal workers. Nvidia’s big week The big week for Nvidia began Monday, when shares fell after GPU rival Advanced Micro Devices announced a blockbuster chip-buying agreement with OpenAI. The deal, which sent AMD stock soaring nearly 24% in a session, could result in OpenAI taking a 10% stake in the company. Investors shouldn’t worry about Nvidia’s dip on Monday, Jim Cramer said, since the AMD-OpenAI deal is not enough to threaten its dominance in the heated AI chip race. “In the end — I know this is going to be facetious — I think everybody wins,” Jim said Monday, referring to OpenAI’s huge $100 billion equity-and-supply agreement with Nvidia last month. The Information on Tuesday reported that Oracle is seeing thin margins on its business of renting out Nvidia chips as a cloud provider to clients like OpenAI. For the three months ending in August, Oracle’s cloud business reportedly had 14% gross margins on $900 million in sales, which is much lower than Oracle’s overall gross margin of roughly 70%, according the The Information. Oracle shares fell as much as 5% as a result during Tuesday’s session. That same day, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang pushed back on those claims during an interview with Jim at the October Monthly Meeting, saying that Oracle is “going to do incredibly well.” Although margin pressure in the near-term isn’t out of the question with new chips, that won’t be the case down the line. “When you first ramp up a new technology, there’s every possibility that you might not make money in the beginning. But over the life of the system, they’ll be wonderfully profitable,” Huang said from the New York Stock Exchange on Tuesday afternoon. During the hour-long interview, Huang also argued that if the United States wants the future to be built on American technology, the country must win the generative artificial intelligence race against China. “Just as we want the world to be built on the American dollar, we would like the world to be built on the American tech stack, including developers in China.” The tech stack expands to more than just Nvidia as Huang also cited holdings Apple, Amazon , and Microsoft . Huang also gave Club members updates on three other Nvidia partners . In addition, Huang said America refocusing on energy growth will help the U.S. win on AI and fuel continued prosperity. “Without energy growth, there is no industrial growth, without industrial growth, there’s no stock price growth, there’s no economic growth, there’s no national security,” he said. Among the stocks that will benefit from AI’s need for energy is GE Vernova . During Wednesday’s Morning Meeting , Jim said, “We bought the right one.” GE Vernova has a booming business in natural gas-powered turbines, which can be hooked up to data centers to generate additional energy needs outside the power grid. NVDA 5D mountain Nvidia weekly performance Nvidia shares certainly had some big moves this week — down days on Monday and Tuesday, and then up days on Wednesday and Thursday. Friday was looking higher until Trump’s China threat slammed the market. When it was all said and done, Nvidia shares closed down 2.4% from their Oct. 3 close. Portfolio moves We purchased more shares of GE Vernova on Tuesday as the stock dropped below its all-time high set in early August. We upgraded the stock, which Jim has called “the best story in the market,” to a buy-equivalent 1 rating . “Our conviction in the long-term demand for AI infrastructure has increased over the past few weeks following OpenAI’s announcement of new partnerships to deploy at least 10 gigawatts of AI data centers using Nvidia systems and 6 gigawatts of AMD GPUs,” Jeff Marks, the Investing Club’s director of portfolio analysis, wrote in Tuesday’s trade alert. The Club offloaded some Salesforce shares on Monday. We booked profits on the lagging enterprise software name after it popped on OpenAI’s announcement that Slack, which is owned by Salesforce, would be integrated into the AI startup’s software engineering tool, known as Codex. “Monday’s pop eases some of the pain, but there’s still a significant overhang on the stock tied to concerns on Wall Street that artificial intelligence is ‘eating’ the software industry,” Marks wrote in the trade alert. Salesforce needs to make a big splash at this month’s Dreamforce client and developers conference to quite critics. On Monday, we also added Corning to our Bullpen watch list for consideration as a portfolio name. Sales of Corning ‘s fiber optic cables should surge as modern AI data centers require far more fiber than earlier generations of these energy-intensive facilities. That’s a key reason why the stock is up 75% year-to-date, versus the S & P 500 ‘s 11.4% gain. Another reason to like Corning: the company’s huge deal with Apple , announced in August, to produce all of the cover glass for iPhones and Apple Watches. On Friday, we trimmed our BlackRock position for the first time. Despite the selling in the overall market, the stock was not that far off its record-high close from Oct. 3. BlackRock shares were also still up nearly 10.5% year to date. We put some of those proceeds to work — adding to our newer names, Nike and Boeing . The Club has been buying these two stocks recently to build up the size of our positions. Despite last month’s earnings pop, Nike shares have lost nearly 14% year to date. Boeing has fared much better — gaining 19% in 2025. Nike’s turnaround Investors got an update on Nike’s turnaround plan this week. In a CNBC interview that aired Monday, CEO Elliott Hill said that it will “take a while” for Nike to return to profitable growth. Hill also said that fixing the company’s operations in China is crucial and part of his bigger effort to revive the brand. “The difference in the Chinese market versus the United States, as an example, is that it’s a mono-brand store. Physical retail is Nike only, and that, I think, we went too sportswear-oriented and not sport enough. Now, we’re reevaluating the concepts that we have in China,” Hill said. Nike’s new direction is sports-themed stores. “We have a running-led store that is starting to sell through really well [in China] because it’s anchored in sport. It has a point of view around sport. There are 5,000 [Nike stores there], so it’s just going to take time for us to roll those concepts out, but feel good about the consumer-led sports-led concepts there,” the CEO added. NKE 5D mountain Nike weekly performance Jim touted Nike stock shortly after the interview and said he still believes in management’s plan to revive the sports apparel and retail giant, which has lost nearly 14% year-to-date. “This fellow Elliott Hill. He’s about sports. He’s competitive,” Jim said on “Squawk on the Street” this week. “He will not lose because he’s got such a great brand, and they can make a comeback.” On Thursday, Nike got solid marks in the fall 2025 edition of Piper Sandler’s “Taking Stock with Teens” survey. Nike remained the No. 1 favorite footwear brand for all teens. Signs of stabilization among the cohort made Piper analysts more bullish on Nike. After ending five consecutive losing weeks, however, shares of Nike lost more than 9% this week. (See here for a full list of the stocks in Jim Cramer’s Charitable Trust.) As a subscriber to the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer, you will receive a trade alert before Jim makes a trade. Jim waits 45 minutes after sending a trade alert before buying or selling a stock in his charitable trust’s portfolio. If Jim has talked about a stock on CNBC TV, he waits 72 hours after issuing the trade alert before executing the trade. THE ABOVE INVESTING CLUB INFORMATION IS SUBJECT TO OUR TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND PRIVACY POLICY , TOGETHER WITH OUR DISCLAIMER . NO FIDUCIARY OBLIGATION OR DUTY EXISTS, OR IS CREATED, BY VIRTUE OF YOUR RECEIPT OF ANY INFORMATION PROVIDED IN CONNECTION WITH THE INVESTING CLUB. NO SPECIFIC OUTCOME OR PROFIT IS GUARANTEED. More

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    BlackRock sees shift in artificial intelligence trade. Where investors are putting their money now.

    BlackRock is seeing a shift among Big Tech investors.
    Jay Jacobs, the firm’s U.S. head of equity ETFs, finds they’re going for targeted themes like artificial intelligence.

    “One of the biggest trades we’re seeing this year is simply people leaving the traditional tech sector and getting more granular into AI-specific ETFs, like BAI [the iShares A.I. Innovation and Tech Active ETF] from BlackRock,” Jacobs told CNBC’s “ETF Edge” this week.
    The fund gives investors exposure from semiconductor manufacturers to large language models in the AI ecosystem, according to Jacobs. 
    BlackRock’s iShares website listed Nvidia, Broadcom, Meta Platforms, and Microsoft as BAI’s top holdings as of this week.
    Factset calculates that electronic technology and technology services stocks make up more than 85% of its holdings. On Friday, the ETF tumbled roughly 5% along with the tech-heavy Nasdaq. However, BAI is up 36% since its inception last Oct. 21.

    ‘People want to play this potentially very disruptive theme’

    Jacobs is also bullish on blockchain-related stocks, noting strong enthusiasm around ethereum has fueled significant investor interest.

    He contends BlackRock’s iShares Ethereum Trust ETF (ETHA), a passively managed fund that tracks the ether’s spot price, has been a beneficiary of the trend. It’s up almost 42% over the past 12 weeks based on Friday’s close.
    “Ethereum is really a bet on blockchain technology and other ways to use it through things like stablecoins and tokenization,” said Jacobs. “People want to play this potentially very disruptive theme.”
    The Amplify ETFs founder and CEO sees opportunity in the cryptocurrency space, too. The firm offers blockchain exposure through the Amplify Transformational Data Sharing ETF (BLOK). It’s an actively managed fund that invests in companies directly involved in developing or deploying blockchain infrastructure, according to the Amplify ETF website.
    “There are a variety of use cases around blockchain, whether that’s stablecoins for payments… or its tokenization of assets, which can happen with real estate or stocks,” Christian Magoon said in the same interview. “We think this is a major theme that’s going to impact not only technology but also fintech and, of course, the crypto community.”
    Magoon also pointed to new regulations as a tailwind for the industry. In July, President Donald Trump signed the GENIUS Act stablecoin legislation into law, which could boost investor confidence in stablecoins.
    “We’re a pioneer in that space, and we think the upside is gonna continue, especially given the current administration and some of the regulatory moves we’re seeing from exchanges as well as large capital market participants,” he added.
    BLOK fell more than 5% on Friday, but it’s still up almost 89% for over the past year. 

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    America and China return to fierce trade conflict

    ONE OF THE year’s surprises has been how few countries chose to retaliate against Donald Trump’s tariffs with levies of their own. Better, most surmised, to placate the president than risk a costly confrontation. China has been an exception. It matched Mr Trump’s threats tit-for-tat until the two sides struck a last-minute truce in the spring. More