Jacqueline Runnberg CFP® CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ Professional
Senior Vice President | Wealth Advisor
Estate Planning is a vital component of every financial plan, regardless of the size of the estate. Unfortunately, it’s also an area that is commonly overlooked.
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British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is set for a big day tomorrow as parliament is set to vote on a Brexit deal that the Prime Minister agreed on with the European Union on Thursday. Boris Johnson stated that he is “very confident” that the House of Commons will support the deal, which is widely expected to be a historically close vote and will determine whether there will be a deal or not before the October 31st deadline. The Northern Irish Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) stated that they are unable to support the deal as it stands, casting doubts over the passage of the deal tomorrow. If the MP’s reject the deal tomorrow, it is still possible that a vote on a “no-deal Brexit” could pass, but that is unlikely given historical votes on the this motion. The likely outcome if the Brexit deal is voted down tomorrow is that the United Kingdom will ask the European Union for another extension.
Ahead of scheduled trade negotiations today with Chinese Vice Premier Liu He, the Trump administration has added 28 Chinese entities to an export blacklist as a consequence of Beijing’s repression of Muslim minorities. The Trump administration stated that this move is completely unrelated to trade negotiations and it will prevent the blacklisted companies from buying American components without government approval. China quickly responded by saying it would take countermeasures, “urging the U.S. side to immediately correct its mistake.” and announced a plan to restrict visas for U.S. nationals with ties to anti-China groups. The Chinese delegation arrived in Washington yesterday where negotiations began and President Trump announced that talks went “very well”. After the meeting at the White House, President Trump told the press that the U.S. and China have “come to a substantial phase 1 deal”. In exchange for the cancelation of the United States planned increase in tariffs on Chinese goods on October 15th, China has agreed to increase purchases of U.S. agriculture goods from $8 billion to $40-$50 billion and has agreed to be more transparent with regard to their currency.
Weekend drone strikes on the heart of the Saudi oil industry forced the kingdom to shut down half its crude production, amounting to a loss of 5.7M barrels a day, or roughly 5% of the world’s daily production of crude oil. Yemen’s Iranian-aligned Houthi rebels claimed credit for the attack, saying they sent 10 drones to strike at important Aramco facilities, including the world’s largest oil processing plant and a major oil field. The disruption sent WTI futures as much as 15.5% higher overnight to $63.34, the biggest intraday percentage gain since June 22, 1998, while President Trump authorized a release of crude from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, as necessary. For the global oil market, the 5.7M bpd Saudi halt is the single worst sudden disruption ever, surpassing the loss following the Invasion of Kuwait and Iranian Revolution.
Early this morning, China announced its plan to impose retaliatory tariffs on $75 billion of American goods including soybeans, automobiles, and oil as a response to the Trump administrations planned additional tariffs on Chinese imports. The new retaliatory tariffs are scheduled to take effect on September 1st and December 15th, the same schedule as the United States 10% tariff on $300 billion of Chinese goods goes into effect. This new set of retaliatory tariffs targets U.S. farms and factories, bringing the total tariff on U.S. automobile exports to 50%. The announcement comes as the G7 summit takes place in France and the Federal Reserve meeting in Jackson Hole Wyoming, two critical meetings where the trade war with China will be discussed.
Whether you’re excited about your first day of full-time employment or starting to count the years to your last, your retirement savings plan should be on your mind. It’s the key to ensuring whatever comes your way later in life, you’ll have the money available to pay for it, even though you’re no longer working.
British Prime Minister Theresa May’s last ditch effort to deliver Brexit through a deal filled with compromises with the Labour Party has failed as calls for her resignation only grew louder. The U.K. participated in European elections this week, putting a sour taste into the mouths of British politicians who had originally planned to watch this event from the sidelines. Results of the European Union elections will be announced after 10P.M on Sunday and British Conservatives are expected to suffer a dramatic defeat. Theresa May has announced that she will resign on June 7th and stated that “It is and will always remain a matter of deep regret to me that I have not been able to deliver Brexit”. The British Pound has fallen substantially amid all of the uncertainty and the process to elect a new leader will begin next week.
Earlier this week, China announced new tariffs on $60 billion of American imports in response to the tariff increase by the United States. The Trump administration will subsidize U.S. farmers with $15 billion in aid, in addition to the Department of Agriculture’s $12 billion compensation plan that was put into place last year. President Trump has stated his intention to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping at the G20 summit in June. The United States also has banned China’s Huawei Technologies from buying U.S. technology without special approval and has restricted its equipment from being any part of U.S. telecom networks. Equipment produced by Huawei Technologies, the world’s third largest smartphone maker, is allegedly used by the Chinese to spy, however Huawei has denied those allegations.
On Sunday night, just days before a Chinese trade delegation would depart for Washington to wrap up 18 months of trade negotiations, President Trump tweeted that tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese goods would rise to 25% from 10% by the end of the week, accusing China of “reneging” on its trade promises. President Trump also shared his intention to impose a 25% tariff on the remaining $325 billion of Chinese goods that aren’t currently taxed, making virtually all Chinese exports to the United States subject to a 25% tariff. The Chinese trade delegation led by Vice Premier Liu He did travel to the White House on Thursday for negotiations that ended earlier today, and the 10% tariff rate on $200 billion in Chinese goods did increase to 25% at midnight last night. China’s Commerce Ministry has announced that they will be taking countermeasures against the tariff increase, but that specifically has not yet been revealed. There have been numerous statements from officials of both countries regarding trade talk progress or lack thereof while markets respond in volatile fashion and struggle for direction, however, the only things we actually know to be true at this point is the fact that there is no done deal, and the tariff rate on $200 billion of Chinese goods has risen to 25% from 10%.
The sanctions imposed on Iran by the United States in November have cut Iran’s oil exports by roughly 1 million barrels per day, and after Thursday’s waivers have expired to some of Iran’s biggest customers, exports are expected to fall by another several hundred thousand barrels per day. At a time of heightened tensions, Iran’s oil minister warned that OPEC is “likely to collapse” due to unilateralism by certain members. Iran appears to be referring to Saudi Arabia’s and the United Arab Emirates’ cooperation with the United States in offsetting the reduction in supply of oil to stabilize prices, and causing substantial economic damage to Iran. Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Zangeneh told an Iranian news agency that “Iran is an OPEC member just for its interests and if certain OPEC members want to threaten and endanger Iran, Iran will not refrain from responding to them”. The next OPEC meeting is scheduled for June 25-26 in Vienna, where the members will decide whether to keep in place an oil supply limit that was established in January.