Womack Investment Advisers

Labor Day is celebrated on the first Monday every September. For some Americans, it signals an end to summer; for others it represents much more. See what you know about Labor Day by taking this brief quiz: 1. In the late 1800s, the typical work week in an American mill was about 73 hours long. Men, women, and children worked slightly more than 12 hours per day, seven days per week. How much did they earn? a. $30 to $34 per week b. $0.07 per hour c. $3 to $3.50 per week d. $0.52 per hour 2. The Fair Labor Standards Act established the minimum wage in 1938. It was set at: a. $0.25 per hour b. $0.76 per hour c. $0.08 per hour d. $1.17 per hour 3. In 1900, which group declared that trade unions were good for democracy? a. AFL-CIO b. U.S. Industrial Commission c. National Labor Union d. U.S. Department of Labor 4. In the United States today, a 40-hour week is considered full-tim...

 Global selloff. Quick comeback. Investors boomeranged from stocks to safe havens and back as trade tensions between the United States and China intensified last week. The Economist reported: “On August 1st President Donald Trump warned that he would soon impose a 10 percent levy on roughly $300bn-worth of Chinese goods that have not already been hit by the trade war. Four days later China responded by giving its exchange rate unaccustomed freedom to fall. The yuan weakened past seven to the dollar, an important psychological threshold, for the first time in over a decade. And stock prices in America duly fell...” Asia Times explained, “Beijing has signaled that it is prepared to endure a long and debilitating trade war with the United States…A reported directive to Chinese companies to refrain from buying U.S. farm products seems an in-your-face challenge to the U.S. president.” The possibility of a prolonged trade war triggered worries about global reces...

Market turmoil this week was caused in large part by President Trump’s additional tariff announcement, followed quickly by China’s announcement that it was officially terminating all purchases of US agricultural products.   The loss of sales to China was called “devastating”, “crippling”, and “a very big deal” by agricultural experts.   So how big is the Chinese market for US ag exports?   Big, but surprisingly not the biggest, or even second biggest – it is (or was!) the fourth largest market for US ag exports last year, as shown in this chart from CNBC.