6 Most Important Things in Business Today

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By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Published
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6 Most Important Things in Business Today

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President Trump wants to help farmers whose finances have or will be hurt by tariffs. According to Reuters:

The Trump administration on Tuesday said it will use a Great Depression-era program to pay up to $12 billion to help U.S. farmers weather a growing trade war with China, the European Union and others that the president began.

It is a clear signal the U.S. President Donald Trump is determined to stick with tariffs as his weapon of choice in the conflict.

Friction between the United States and China could hurt Apple Inc.’s (NASDAQ: AAPL) sales. According to The Wall Street Journal:

The phrase on the back of iPhones—“Designed by Apple in California. Assembled in China”—highlights a key reason for the company’s remarkable success but also shows how exposed it is to the escalating U.S.-China trade fight.

By assembling its phones in China, Apple Inc. AAPL 0.73% tapped into China’s vast workforce and formidable manufacturing capabilities. But it also made Apple’s most-profitable product a Chinese export—one that could be subject to tariffs in the trade dispute.

On top of that, China is by far Apple’s most important market outside the U.S., leaving it exposed if Beijing decides to retaliate by squeezing its sales.

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President Trump went after the European Union on trade issues, again. According to Bloomberg:

President Donald Trump said that the U.S. and the European Union should drop all tariffs, barriers and subsidies, just hours before the bloc’s trade chiefs present him with proposals going a long way toward that outcome in a crunch meeting at the White House.

“I have an idea for them. Both the U.S. and the E.U. drop all Tariffs, Barriers and Subsidies!” Trump said in a Tuesday night tweet. “That would finally be called Free Market and Fair Trade! Hope they do it, we are ready – but they won’t!”

One person won the $522 million lottery. According to CNBC:

The fifth largest jackpot in Mega Millions history was won in California on Tuesday night.

A single ticket sold in California matched all six numbers drawn on Tuesday night, giving the winner an estimated prize of $522 million, of which $308.1 million is cash.

Bitcoin prices jumped again. According to CNBC:

Bitcoin has recovered somewhat in the past few days, but its value is still almost $200 billion less than when it hit its record high in December 2017.

The flagship cryptocurrency is trading just above $8,400 on Wednesday, according to CoinDesk, but that’s still some 58 percent off the $19,783.21 record from December. Market capitalization or value is down by almost $200 billion since then.

China is taking measures to help its economy in the face of a trade war. According to CNNMoney:

China is looking for new ways to pump up its slowing economy as a trade war with the United States escalates.

Beijing has announced a range of measures including tax cuts, infrastructure spending and new loans to business as its tries to reinvigorate economic growth, which has begun to slow in recent months.

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Photo of Douglas A. McIntyre
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.

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