6 Most Important Things in Business Today

By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Mar 13, 3:33PM EDT · Published Jul 5, 5:10AM EDT

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China has challenged the United States as a trade war between the two nations begins. According to Reuters:

The United States is “opening fire” on the world with its threatened tariffs, China warned on Thursday, saying no one wants a trade war but it will respond the instant U.S. measures go into effect as Beijing ramped up the rhetoric in the heated dispute.

The Trump administration’s tariffs on $34 billion of Chinese imports are due to go into effect at 0401 GMT on Friday, which is just after midday in Beijing.

Chinese telecom firm ZTE is preparing for a resurrection after U.S. officials nearly shut it down. According to The Wall Street Journal:

ZTE Corp. has named a slate of new top executives, including a new chief executive, a person familiar with the matter said, as the Chinese telecom firm presses ahead with its U.S.-mandated leadership purge.

ZTE’s new CEO is Xu Ziyang, the former head of the company’s business in Germany, the person said. The company also named a new chief financial officer, as well as a new chief technology officer and a new head of human resources, the person said.

The new leadership comes less than a week after ZTE’s board of directors resigned and shareholders voted to install a new eight-person board. ZTE is required to name a new board and senior executives as conditions for the U.S. government to lift a ban on purchasing American-made parts.

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The world’s largest hedge fund will enter the Chinese market. According to The Wall Street Journal:

Bridgewater Associates LP, the world’s largest hedge-fund firm, has won approval to sell investment products to institutional and high-net-worth investors in China.

Bridgewater (China) Investment Management Co., a Shanghai-based unit of the U.S. firm, obtained a license on June 29 to be a private fund manager, according to the Asset Management Association of China, a quasiofficial body. It has six months to launch its first onshore investment fund.

Some Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA) vehicle owners in a European country are not happy with their cars. According to Bloomberg:

Tesla drivers in one of its biggest markets are getting increasingly disgruntled.

Norway’s Consumer Council has seen a rapid increase in complaints coming from Tesla owners, it said in a report dated July 4. Customers have struggled to get in contact with customer service and several have complained about late deliveries, newswire NTB reported earlier.

Germany’s economy is set to slow. According to CNBC:

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Thursday cut its 2018 forecast for German GDP growth to 2.2 percent, saying rising protectionism and the threat of a hard Brexit had exposed Europe’s biggest economy to significant short-term risks.

The Washington-based lender, whose previous prediction from April was 2.5 percent, edged its 2019 forecast up to 2.1 percent from 2.0 percent.

While employment is rising in many developed countries, wages are typically a problem. According to CNBC:

A record number of people have jobs, and companies are struggling to fill positions. But workers still aren’t getting raises.

A new report from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development warns that positive employment trends are at risk of being overshadowed by “unprecedented” wage stagnation.

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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.