Finance

President Donald Trump has accused China of wanting to stall trade negotiations through the 2020 election in hopes of being able to negotiate with a more malleable Democratic president. Yet if re-elected, Trump threatened to get “much tougher” with Beijing. “China would love to wait and just hope,” Trump asserted to reporters Tuesday. “They would […]

Shares of Altria Group fell Tuesday as the nation’s largest tobacco company predicted steeper declines for cigarettes in coming years. The Richmond, Virginia-based company reported second-quarter earnings of roughly $2 billion, or $1.07 per share. Earnings, adjusted for asset impairment costs and non-recurring costs, were $1.10 per share. The results matched Wall Street expectations, according

Floodwaters swamped more than half a million acres of forest and farmland in the lower Mississippi Delta more than six months ago, gulping up highways and homes, livestock and tractors. This week, for the first time since, the river gauge at Vicksburg on the Western border fell below flood stage. “This is biblical proportion,” Paul

More Americans signed contracts to purchase homes in June, marking the second straight month of growth. The National Association of Realtors said Tuesday that its pending home sales index rose 2.8% to 108.3 in June, up from 105.4 in May. Pending home sales are up 1.6% from their pace a year ago, snapping a 17-month

U.S. stocks moved slightly lower on Wall Street Tuesday as President Donald Trump ramped up criticism of China just as negotiators began a new round of trade talks. The latest tweets injected anxiety into the markets in an already busy week. Investors are closely watching the ongoing trade negotiations as well as a heavy flow

American consumer confidence rebounded this month to the highest level since November after drooping in June. The Conference Board, a business research group, said Tuesday that its consumer confidence index rose to 135.7 in July from 124.3 in June. The bounce back from last month’s drop was much stronger than economists expected. The index measures

Consumer spending rose a healthy 0.3% in June, slightly below the strong gains of the past three months, while incomes turned in a solid 0.4% gain for the fourth straight month. The Commerce Department said Tuesday that the spending increase followed strong gains of 1% in March, 0.6% in April and 0.5% in May as

Merck is reporting a 12% jump in global sales, pushing it past profit expectations for the second quarter. The pharmaceutical company reported a profit of $2.67 billion, or $1.03 per share. Earnings, adjusted for costs related to mergers and acquisitions and restructuring costs, were $1.30 per share, which is 14 cents better than Wall Street

There’s little dispute that the Federal Reserve this week will do something it hasn’t done since 2008, when the U.S. economy was gripped by the Great Recession: Cut its benchmark interest rate. This time, by contrast, the economy is solid by most measures. Consumers are spending. Unemployment is close to a half-century low. A recession

Shares were mostly higher in Asia on Tuesday as envoys from the U.S. and China prepared to resume trade talks, this time in Shanghai. Japan’s Nikkei 225 index climbed 0.4% to 21,709.31 after the Bank of Japan opted to keep its policy intact and leave its benchmark interest rate at minus 0.1% but suggested it