The Trump administration's proposed tariffs on Chinese goods could starkly impact the printing industry, and lead to a shortage of Bibles and children's books, reports Bloomberg.
Why it matters: The $300 billion tariffs on Chinese goods includes printed materials and would make it difficult to afford printing some formats of the Bible, raise prices and lead to a shortage affecting the Christian bookseller market. Chinese manufacturers also use non-toxic and waterproof material for children's books, and it could be challenging for publishers to achieve that same quality for comparable prices elsewhere, per Bloomberg.
President Trump tweeted Tuesday that he spoke with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the phone this morning and that the two leaders agreed to have an "extended meeting" at the G20 summit in Japan on June 28–29. He added that talks between the two sides will take place before the meeting.
Why it matters: The Dow jumped several hundred points on the news that Xi and Trump have agreed to meet, with the risk of new tariffs on $350 billion of Chinese goods still looming over the global economy. Trump threatened last week that the tariffs would go into effect if Xi failed to attend the G20.
With 496 S&P 500 companies having reported first quarter earnings, more than three quarters (75.6%) beat expectations, with Q1 earnings now expected to increase 1.6%, data from Lipper shows.
What it means: That's a far cry from the first stage of an earnings recession analysts feared early in the year.
The June reading of the Empire State Manufacturing Index, a regional survey of manufacturing industry business owners by the New York Fed, was quite bad.
Details: The headline reading was -8.6, down from 17.8 the month before, the largest monthly decline ever recorded.
As dollars have grown scarce at many traditional retail outlets, cosmetics powerhouse Estée Lauder has found an interesting way to make its money. For the first time last year, it generated more revenue at airports globally than at U.S. department stores, data shows.
What's happening: The airport is becoming a booming shopping destination and Estée Lauder, home to brands like Clinique, MAC and Tom Ford Beauty, has been taking full advantage.
Dozens of the world's biggest advertising and content companies, including major tech firms, brands, ad agencies and industry groups, announced Tuesday their commitment to a newly-created alliance to take significant steps to improve digital safety.
Why it matters: It's the biggest and most comprehensive industry effort to date to tackle the ongoing brand safety crisis online. Competing groups are putting their differences aside to solve the problem quickly in the face of global regulatory threats.
Former Snapchat Chief Strategy Officer Imran Khan is today launching Verishop, a digital marketplace for luxury goods, with more than 150 contemporary brands across multiple lifestyle categories.
Why it matters: Three decades into the internet era, there still isn't a major ecommerce destination for department store quality shopping online. This is especially true given Amazon has chosen to focus on basic goods instead of luxury.
Drone delivery — tied up in regulatory debates and largely nonexistent beyond a few, isolated pilots — hasn't boomed in the U.S. yet, but Amazon and Walmart are placing big bets on unmanned vehicles.
The big picture: The hooplah has intensified to the point where a number of upstarts are popping up to offer drone-delivery-in-a-box to the retailers who can't afford to invest themselves. The two retail rivals are betting that drone delivery — currently estimated to be worth $30 billion — will take an increasingly large share of the $1.5 trillion logistics business.
Rather than react one story at a time to negative media coverage of the transgender community, producer, activist and writer Andrea James wants to map out the bias, in hopes of eventually eliminating it.
What's new: For the past year, James has been working on a data visualization project tracing connecting threads and shared sources in biased coverage. On Monday, James is going public with the effort, called The Transphobia Project, and launching a Kickstarter campaign in hopes of being able to fully fund the effort.
Consumers find voice-based ads on their smart speakers to be more engaging and less intrusive than pitches in other media, according to a new survey by Adobe.
By the numbers: According to the findings, 43% of consumers found smart speaker ads to be less intrusive, compared to 26% that held the opposite view. (About 31% were neutral on the question.)
Investors aren't buying the idea of a potential Organization of Cocoa Exporting Countries, and cocoa prices sank late last week after rallying to an 11-month high.
Driving the news: Ghana and Ivory Coast reached an agreement not to sell cocoa for less than $2,600 a ton for the harvest that will begin in October 2020. The two African nations account for 60% of the world's cocoa production. That sent cocoa prices to $2,552 Wednesday.
Ukraine sold 1 billion euros of 7-year bonds in its first offer to international markets under new president — and former comedian — Volodymyr Zelensky, who was elected in April.
Why it matters: Ukraine's latest offering comes amid a flurry of new bond issuance, particularly from emerging markets, as declining interest rates in the U.S. and Europe (where German government bond yields have hit all-time lows) are encouraging countries to load up on new debt.
The market has stopped paying much attention to Fed Chair Jerome Powell's long-range forecasts and the Fed's future guidance and will merely be looking for confirmation of its expectations at this week's Fed meeting.
The state of play: Markets are now looking to data — including the value of the stock market — rather than central bank predictions as the road map for policy.
Amgen, Eli Lilly, Merck and the Association of National Advertisers are suing the Trump administration over its rule forcing pharmaceutical companies to display drugs' list prices in TV commercials.
Context: They say the rule violates the First Amendment and exceeds the government's authority.
