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Market Report- July 2025

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Market and Politics Report- Mid-July 2025  The busy and prosperous month of July is now more than halfway done. Let's recap some of the latest developments (not in chronological order) throughout the first half of the month.  On July 4, President Trump signed the "One Big Beautiful Bill" into law. This bill ensures that Americans will experience a tax cut while also streamlining Medicaid and other government services. These elements of the bill will ensure economic success and prosperity, alongside proper monetary policy stemming from the Fed. The bill also allocates funds to ICE and for border security, to ensure that legal immigration and the law are upheld to the highest degree. On July 7, President Trump extended the July 9 deadline for certain tariffs on specific nations to August 1 via an executive order. This comes amid great success in markets, with indexes such as the S&P and the Dow at all-time highs. These successes in markets likely pushed President Trump ...

Market and Politics Report- June 2025

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Market and Politics Report- June 2025  Well, that was an eventful and action-packed month of June. From the US strikes on Iran to developments in markets and the economy, June kept the curveballs coming for investors and political enthusiasts alike.  To recap the first half of the month, trade deals were struck with various nations, including China, to aid in repairing the international trade system and the US's trade relations internationally. The job and CPI data were released for May, which indicated that 139,000 non-farm jobs were gained, as well as the core CPI coming in at 2.8%, suggesting a stable and growing economy and labor force. Also, on June 13, Israeli troops launched missile strikes against Iran, followed by fierce retaliation from Iran, due to extremely high tensions in the Middle East.  On June 22, US B-2 bombers crossed into Iranian airspace and destroyed the Iranian nuclear sites of Fordow, Isfahan, and Natanz. This strike was preceded by numerous days ...

Market Report- June 2025

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  So far, June 2025 has been a month of shifting and evolving economic tides. From trade talks with China to the fallout between Trump and Musk, June has kept investors and financial analysts on their toes. On June 6, May's job report was released, detailing that the economy gained 139,000 non-farm jobs. This number, though being less than April's 177,000 jobs gained, was more than the 125,000 jobs expected for May. This indicates that the economy is in a stable state, with gradual growth being the primary outcome of current economic activity. Following the job's report, on June 11, May's CPI data came in at 2.4%, meaning a 2.4% increase in the price of goods from May 2024 by 2.4%, with core CPI coming in at 2.8% (excluding non-volatile goods such as food and energy). These numbers were lower than expected, indicating that the economy is on the right trackand in a more stable position than it was in recent months On June 9-10, Delegates from the US and China met in Lond...

Market and Politics Report- May 2025

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Market and Politics Report- May 2025    An extremely eventful month for the markets, Washington, and trade. From trade deals, overseas trips, to the passage of the "one-big-beautiful bill" in the house, May was by far a pretty action-packed month.  To recap the earlier parts of the month, the Fed kept rates steady, at 4.25-4.50%, and the US made trade deals with the UK, as well as China. The Fed's news about the stabilization of the economy, in contrast to earlier activity in April because of the US tariffs, kept the major indexes and markets steady. Then with the major trade deals with the UK and China brokered by the Trump Administration, markets spiked, returning to pre-tariff levels once again. Also, CPI data for April came in early May at 2.3%, lower than expected. This helped to ease some consumer fears of recession and higher prices long-term. From May 13 to May 16, President Trump and various Fortune 500 CEO's, including Jensen Huang (NVDA) and Lisa Su (AMD), ...

Market Report- May 2025

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  What a busy start to May 2025! Major developments, such as the May Fed Meeting, the US-UK trade deal on VE Day, and the long-awaited US-China trade deal sparked movement in the market, as well as in politics.  During the last Fed Meeting on May 7th, interest rates were held steady, at 4.25%-4.5%. Chairman Powell noted that the inflation rate is not particularly concerning right now, risks for higher inflation rates and higher economic uncertainty are not off the table going forward. This is due to the economic volatility caused by the reciprocal tariffs imposed by the Trump Administration on April 2nd. Powell says that Trump's policy is "in a good place," and that the Fed will act accordingly to developments in the coming months, though not hinting at lowering interest rates in the future. On May 8th, President Trump announced that the US and the UK have signed a trade deal, with the goal of bolstering economic security for both nations, as well as ensuring a fair and o...

Market and Politics Report- April 2025

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Market and Politics Report- April 2025  April 2025, a tumultuous and unpredictable month in politics and on Wall Street. In early April, the Trump Administration rolled out tariffs on over 100 countries, sending global markets and governments into a frenzy. Major indexes took major hits, on multiple occasions throughout the month, while also having major recoveries on some trading days. Through this volatility, the major indexes, on average, lost between 1-3%, with the NASDAQ getting hit the hardest. This was likely due to tech stocks taking major losses due to fears of supply chain security with Asia, since the tariffs have slowed down trade of crucial technology supplies (like computer chips) from Asia to the US. A notably hard hit stock in the US was Tesla, down over 45% from its high due to growing concern over tariffs, and CEO Elon Musk's involvement with the Trump administration as a senior advisor to the President and head of DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency). To me...

Markets react to Trump tariffs- April 2025

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This has been the face of many traders over the past couple of days on Wall Street, and across the world. On April 2, 2025, President Trump unveiled his highly anticipated reciprocal tariffs on foreign imports, with all nations facing a minimum 10% tariffs on all goods they export to the US. Some countries, such as China, Vietnam, Indonesia, Canada, Mexico, and Cambodia have faced higher tariffs. For example, a 46% tariff was placed on Vietnamese imports.  President Trump deemed April 2nd, "Liberation Day," claiming that the US had been ripped off by other nations through trade for decades, and that the US was finally "free" from trade imbalances and from getting "cheated" by other nations. However, global markets reaction to the tariffs was not one of excitement and promise, but of fear and distress.  From April 3rd to April 4th, global markets saw a sharp decline, with all major US indexes in correction territory, especially the Russell 2000 Index in a b...