6 Most Impotant Things in Business Today

By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Jan 11, 6:58PM EST · Published Aug 23, 4:55AM EDT

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6 Most Impotant Things in Business Today — © swisshippo / Getty Images

A huge IPO for Saudi oil company Aramco may be canceled. According to Reuters:

Saudi Arabia has called off both the domestic and international stock listing of state oil giant Aramco, billed as the biggest such deal in history, four senior industry sources said on Wednesday.

The financial advisors working on the proposed listing have been disbanded, as Saudi Arabia shifts its attention to a proposed acquisition of a “strategic stake” in local petrochemicals maker Saudi Basic Industries Corp 2010.SE, two of the sources said.

The trade war between China and the United States has escalated. According to Reuters:

The United States and China escalated their acrimonious trade war on Thursday, implementing punitive 25 percent tariffs on $16 billion worth of each other’s goods, even as mid-level officials from both sides resumed talks in Washington.

The world’s two largest economies have now slapped tit-for-tat tariffs on a combined $100 billion of products since early July, with more in the pipeline, adding to risks to global economic growth.

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Earnings from Target Corp. (NYSE: TGT) showed that the retail recovery continues. According to The Wall Street Journal:

Target Corp. said it had its best quarterly results in more than a decade, buoyed by the retailer’s efforts to improve its stores and e-commerce capabilities as well as by a booming economy that has helped lift sales across the retail industry.

The numbers from the Minneapolis-based chain continue a strong quarter of results from the country’s largest retailers, which have benefited from increasing consumer confidence and rising online sales despite the challenge of Amazon.com Inc. Target Chief Executive Brian Cornell on Wednesday said it isn’t just the economy fueling growth, pointing to the company’s gains in market share across a range of categories from electronics and homewares to toys and apparel.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has killed the future of bitcoin exchange traded funds. According to CNBC:

The SEC has again disapproved several proposals for a bitcoin ETF.

The latest rejection involves two ETFs filed by ProShares that would track bitcoin futures contracts, another from GraniteShares, and five leveraged and inverse ETFs from Direxion.

This follows on the heels of the SEC’s rejection of the Winklevloss ETF in July that would have traded physical bitcoin

Australia blocked two Chinese companies that wanted to build 5G networks there. According to CNBC:

China’s Huawei and ZTE have been banned from providing 5G technology equipment to Australia.

Huawei made a statement on Twitter Thursday saying that the Australian government had made the move despite the Chinese firm “safely and securely” delivering wireless technology in the country for nearly 15 years.

The Federal Reserve is worried about a trade war. According to CNNMoney:

The Federal Reserve is warning that an escalating trade war would pose a big threat to the economy.

But it’s sticking with its plan to raise interest rates — whether President Donald Trump likes it or not — as long as the economy remains on course.

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About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.