A brief update on the US/China trade talks. Apparently, the tentative framework is in place to continue talks and get the two leaders (US President and China President) to approve basically the framework of the last 2 days. Early reports suggest a give and take possibly....US wanting rare earths in exchange for loosening semiconductor restrictions. Of course, it is very early and different outlets are reporting many different takes on what little has been released. Time will tell if it can move forward. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/us-china-officials-agree-plan-234548148.html
Well a little update to our tariff thread. Yes, I too have been mostly ignoring it as well for a while. Appears another extension has been granted for the US/China talks. Who could have guessed that?. Who knows, maybe they will get something ironed out during the 90 day extension. I think we are still wrestling around with India a bit as well. The Japan agreement has some revisions coming as well over some of the confusing language from both sides. A few others trying to rework some of theirs last I checked. Hard to keep up with all of it. So far, it appears to be a wait and see approach versus not much immediate impact. Maybe it will become clearer for either scenario as we go along into the year and some of these later ones are possibly settled. The markets appear to have had their initial tantrum early and have moved on to other things. Most are at ATH’s and made our portfolios happy. Interesting year so far to follow along.
Another brief update to our tariff thread. Another fairly significant ruling regarding the tariffs was released late Friday afternoon by the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Basically striking down most of the tariffs implementation once again. This comes after a previous ruling from the US Court of International Trade that had also struck them down back a few months ago as well. Of course, the Court is allowing the opportunity for a petition for a writ of certiorari to be filed in the US Supreme Court by October 14. So, the arguments are far from over on the issue. A few links for those who want to dive into the details. The Courts documents and a brief news article from a media outlet. https://www.cafc.uscourts.gov/opinions-orders/25-1812.OPINION.8-29-2025_2566151.pdf https://www.cafc.uscourts.gov/opinions-orders/25-1812.ORDER.8-29-2025_2566157.pdf https://www.cnbc.com/2025/08/29/trump-trade-tariffs-appeals-court-ieepa.html
Little update from me and first hand tariff effects: 1. I shipped a cuckoo clock from Germany home to the U.S. $300 charge from UPS. Somehow we need to bring back our never-existant cuckoo clock industry? Blanket tariff idiocy #1 by an idiot president. 2. I wanted to by a copper hanging bird bath from via etsy from a guy in Quebec. He nicely informed me that due to it being made of copper and the de minimis exemption expired, I was looking at a 70% tariff. Told him I'll try back later when Trump invariably changes his policy. Poor guy lost a sale due to this. Blanket tariff idiocy #2 by an idiot president. I'll have to look and see if this ruling helps with #2 above.
He can't keep it straight. Bring back jobs. Get better tariff rates. Revenue generation. Stop illegal drug trade. America first. Blah blah blah. Whatever the reason du jour, it is hitting the little guy a hell of a lot harder than the conglomerates who can afford to wait out his term. Big business always gets what it wants, and the little guy gets crushed in the meantime. Just look at Nvidia. They knew that GPUs were being smuggled into China. Uncle Sam knew it as well. They were not about to get serious with Jensen. What was the face saving "deal"? A 15% cut off the top to add to the treasury. Stopping shipments to China was a silly fantasy. Time to face reality and make some money in the process. Meanwhile I would have to pay a 70% tax to import a silly birth bath from Canada. Make it make sense.
