Category: Markets and Macro

The United States is preparing a new 7.5 percent tariff on Chinese goods, a step that would raise the cost of a wide range of imports if it moves forward. As of late August the measure remained a plan rather than a policy in force, with officials aiming to finalize it ahead of a meeting…

A new round of 50 percent tariffs on a broad list of Canadian imports took effect in late August, and the goods on the list reach directly into the budgets of older Americans. Liquor, clothing, and the building materials used in home repairs are among the products now carrying the higher duty. For retirees living…

Some of the largest companies in America are collecting billions of dollars in refunds on tariffs that were later ruled illegal, while the shoppers who absorbed those costs in higher prices are getting little or nothing back. Apple has recovered about $2.2 billion, Ford roughly $1.3 billion, and Amazon around $600 million, part of a…

President Donald Trump has announced a 90-day pause on the higher tariffs charged on imported ground beef, an unusual move aimed directly at the price of one of the most common items in an older shopper’s cart. The administration says the temporary opening will let in a large volume of foreign beef to ease costs…

Michael Burry’s warning about a dot-com-style market phase came in early May, not this week. The investor compared the surge in leading technology shares with the final months before the 2000 peak and urged caution around stocks rising at a parabolic pace. For retirees, the dated call is more useful as a stress test than…

A valuation measure associated with Warren Buffett remains far above its long-run comfort zone, but no single current percentage is an official Berkshire Hathaway statistic. The gauge compares the market value of equities with the economy that ultimately supports corporate earnings. Its useful message for retirees is about exposure and expected returns, not a precise…

A century and a half of stock-market history offers a rare vantage point, and right now it is flashing a warning. A widely followed valuation measure known as the Shiller CAPE ratio has climbed to nearly 41, a level it has reached only once before in more than 150 years of records. For anyone whose…

The single number Warren Buffett once called “probably the best single measure of where valuations stand at any given moment” has climbed to a level never seen before. The so-called Buffett Indicator, which stacks the total value of the U.S. stock market against the size of the American economy, now sits near 236 percent. At…

An investor famous for betting against the housing market before the 2008 crash has turned a skeptical eye toward the enthusiasm surrounding artificial-intelligence stocks. His warning, that the current market resembles the last stretch of the late-1990s technology bubble, has circulated widely because of who is making it. For retirees whose portfolios have ridden the…

A market yardstick that Warren Buffett popularized decades ago is flashing one of the most extreme readings in its history, and commentators have revived a warning he attached to it long ago. For retirees whose savings sit largely in stocks, the number is worth understanding, not because it predicts the next move, but because it…