6 Most Important Things in Business Today

By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Mar 13, 3:28PM EDT · Published Sep 6, 4:57AM EDT

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The trade war between the United States and China may be getting worse. According to Reuters:

With U.S. President Donald Trump gearing up to impose tariffs on $200 billion in Chinese goods and Beijing certain to retaliate against any measures, the world’s two biggest economies are locked in an escalating trade war, with no resolution in sight

The United States is negotiating with Canada this week to try and finalize a deal to modernize the North American Free Trade Agreement, an outcome some in the White House say will allow Washington to turn up the heat on Beijing.

The FBI is looking into certain practices at American Express Co. (NYSE: AXP). According to The Wall Street Journal:

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has launched a probe into pricing practices within American Express Co.’s foreign-exchange unit, according to people familiar with the matter.

The investigation is in its early stages and is focused on whether the foreign-exchange international payments department misrepresented pricing to clients in order to win their business, the people said.

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Harvard topped a new ranking of colleges done by the Wall Street Journal:

Cambridge is king. Size doesn’t matter. And money talks.

Those are some of the broad takeaways of this year’s Wall Street Journal/Times Higher Education College Rankings, which award Harvard University the top spot for the second straight year, followed by its Cambridge neighbor, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Bernie Sanders proposed a new law that is aimed at Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN). According to The Wall Street Journal:

An unusual public spat between Amazon.com Inc. and Sen. Bernie Sanders over workers’ wages escalated Wednesday as the Vermont independent introduced a bill aimed at taxing big companies whose employees rely on federal benefits to make ends meet.

Mr. Sanders specifically targeted Amazon founder and leader Jeff Bezos, contrasting his vast personal wealth with the compensation of the companies’ lowest-paid workers.

Walmart Inc. (NYSE: WMT) will begin to deliver groceries to people’s homes. According to The Wall Street Journal:

Walmart Inc. is testing its own network of independent delivery drivers as it aims to offer home grocery delivery to 100 metro areas by the end of the year.

The retail giant said Wednesday it will begin using Spark Delivery, a crowd-sourced delivery-driver network named after Walmart’s yellow star logo, to accomplish its grocery-delivery goals. The new delivery system will rely on drivers using their own cars to make deliveries. Walmart will use Delivery Drivers Inc. to help recruit, vet and pay drivers for Spark Delivery.

The value of many cryptocurrencies has collapsed. According to Bloomberg:

Cryptocurrencies dropped sharply for the second time in less than 24 hours, sinking toward a nine-month low amid concern that broader adoption of digital assets will take longer than some anticipated.

Bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency, tumbled as much as 9.8 percent and was trading at $6,422 as of 1:25 p.m. in Hong Kong, according to Bloomberg composite pricing. The Bloomberg Galaxy Crypto Index, a gauge of the largest digital assets, traded near its lowest level since November 2017 as rival coins Ripple, Ether and Litecoin also fell.

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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.