China’s shipments to the U.S. plunged 33% in August
While overall exports growth slowed to its weakest level in six months, and President Donald Trump’s policy targeting trans-shipments weighed on exports and businesses, frontloading activity lost momentum. 👉Imports from the U.S. also dropped 16% from a year ago, customs data showed. 👉China’s total exports climbed 4.4% in August in U.S. dollar terms from a year earlier, customs data showed Monday, marking their lowest growth since February while missing Reuters-polled economists’ estimates for a 5.0% rise. That growth slowed from the prior two months, in part reflecting the statistical effect of a high base last year when China’s exports grew at their fastest pace in nearly one-and-a-half years. 👉Imports rose 1.3% last month from a year ago, missing Reuters estimates for a 3% growth. Imports rose for a third straight month after returning to growth in June, albeit still muted due to the persistent real estate slump, rising job insecurity, among other things. ➡️ China has increasingly relied on alternative markets, particularly Southeast Asia and European Union nations, Africa and Latin America, as U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade policy has pressured U.S.-bound shipments. Nonetheless, no one country has come close to the U.S. which remains China’s largest trading partner on a single-country basis, absorbing $283 billion of Chinese goods this year as of August. Exports to the EU stood at $541 billion over the same period. Beijing and Washington on Aug. 11 agreed to extend their tariff truce by another 90 days, locking in place U.S. tariffs of around 55% on Chinese imports and 30% Chinese duties on U.S. goods, according to Peterson Institute for International Economist. But bilateral talks appear to be struggling to reach a breakthrough, with a late-August visit to Washington by top Chinese trade negotiator Li Chenggang yielding little progress. Source: CNBC
The top 10 US stocks now have a combined market cap of 23 trn USD, bigger than China (16), the EU (13) or Japan (7)
If these 10 were a country, they’d be the world’s largest stock market (ex US). Source: Bergos AG, Econovis, Till Christian Budelmann
Scott Bessent now says the Biden-era jobs tally will be revised down by ~800,000 next week
Goldman Sachs is calling for a 550k–950k cut in the BLS benchmark revision. If it lands, the labor market narrative gets rewritten and it could swing the Fed between a 25bps trim and a 50bps shock in September. Source: StockMarket.News
‼️ JUST IN: Another WEAK jobs report
The US economy added only 22,000 jobs in August ➡️ That’s much weaker than expected. 1) The unemployment rate rose to 4.3% --> Highest since October 2021. 2) June job growth was revised down to -13,000 (!). July was revised up slightly to 79k (from 73k). 🌈 Wages grew 3.7% in the past year (above 2.7% inflation). Source: Heather Long @byHeatherLong on X
Treasury buybacks are accelerating
As highlighted by The Kobeissi Letter on X: " The US Treasury has bought back a record $138 billion in bonds YTD. This significantly surpasses the $79 billion repurchased during the entire 2024. This buyback program aims to boost liquidity and manage cash, as deficit spending continues to surge. In July, the Treasury said it would buy back 10- to 30-year Treasuries TWICE as often. As a result, Bloomberg’s measure of Treasury liquidity has materially improved over the last year. The world’s largest bond market can no longer function without intervention". Source: The Kobeissi letter, Bloomberg
Debt in the U.S. is spiraling faster than ever
On July 2nd, the national debt was $36.2 trillion. By September 4th, it hit $37.4 trillion. That’s $1.2 trillion in just two months over $21 billion added every day. At the same time, government spending is running at levels we used to only see during wars or crises like 2008 and Covid. The difference? Today’s economy is still called “strong.” Source: stockmarket.news on X
Tesla Robotaxi has already surpassed Uber on the App Store, ranking #1 in the Travel category
99%+ of these users can’t even use the app yet. Source: Ali Mirzaei @AliMirzaei0 on X
American Eagle $AEO shares just had their best day in history (+37.9%)
What a chart! And thank you Sydney Sweeney...📈📈 Source: Barchart
