US to Impose 10% Tariff on List Four Chinese Goods

The U.S. announced Aug. 1 it will impose a 10% tariff on $300 billion of Chinese goods beginning Sept. 1. This leaves businesses with just under a month to prepare, although negotiations are set to continue. The tariffs will impact list four goods.President Trump said he will meet with negotiators again in early September, according to Supply Chain...
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Construction Spending Declines in June

Construction spending is on the decline in the U.S. Construction spending dropped 1.3% in June to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $1.287 trillion, according to a release from the Census Bureau earlier this week. June's data is also 2.1% below the June 2018 estimate.A decrease in public works projects and wet weather are the likely culprits beh...
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Strategic Global Intelligence Brief for July 31, 2019

Short Items of Interest—U.S. EconomyFed Expectations By the time you read this, the Federal Reserve will have made its decision regarding interest rates. The consensus view this week has been that the Fed would drop rates by a quarter point in response to the declines noted in the global economy. Even today, there have been dissenters from both dir...
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Cyberattacks Have Lasting Impacts on Small Businesses, Local Governments

Just as a storm can have a lasting impact on a community, cybersecurity experts say cyberattacks on small businesses and local governments can often leave a lasting path of destruction, making it difficult even after the affected have recuperated.For example, Symantec's Modern OS Security team released findings in early July that exposed a long-ter...
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West Coast Imports Decline in June, Tariffs a Suspect to Blame

West Coast imports declined in the month of June, which may be tied to recent trade wars and tariffs. Notably, the Port of Long Beach saw a 13% decline year-over-year (YOY) in June, along with the Port of Oakland and the Northwest Seaport Alliance which saw a 6% drop YOY in June, according to Supply Chain Dive. These numbers have been offset by a 3...
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Construction Contractors’ Confidence Holds Steady in May

Fresh into the dog days of summer, the U.S. construction industry is assessing contractors' confidence levels for nonresidential construction. According to Associated Builders and Contractors' (ABC) latest Construction Confidence Index (CCI) results in May, contractors are optimistic about sales expectations in the near future, yet show some uncert...
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Existing-Home Sales Fall Short in June

Existing-home sales are on the decline following an uptick in the previous month, and sales were slower than expected. The National Association of Realtors reports sales declined 1.7% in June from May, and are down 2.2% from a year ago."Home sales are running at a pace similar to 2015 levels—even with exceptionally low mortgage rates, a record numb...
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Chinese Tariffs Discourage US Fashion Companies

A recent report by the U.S. Fashion Industry Association revealed the U.S.-China trade war has pushed U.S. companies to reduce how much they source from China. Up by more than 15% from 2018, 83% said they plan on reducing their sourcing from China. The companies also cited U.S. protectionism and rising production costs as some of the main strains o...
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Progress on US and Chinese Trade Talks Remains Slow

Agriculture is the most recent point of contention between the U.S. and China, with President Trump off-put by China's "lack of agricultural concessions" and requests to ease up on trade restrictions, according to a recent article by Bloomberg.Trump said China did not boost their purchases of American farm products, despite the fact that President ...
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Monthly, Yearly Construction Input Prices Stumble in June

Monthly fluctuations are common, which is why construction economists weren't surprised to see a decrease in June's construction input prices. What experts didn't expect was the same decrease in year-over-year readings for the first time in nearly three years.On July 12, Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) reported a 1.3% decrease in month-ov...
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Las Vegas Stadium Hit with Nonpayment Suit

The under-construction Las Vegas Stadium is facing another hiccup. While the project continues to power through steel work, with substantial completion just weeks away, the future home of the Oakland Raiders is facing a lawsuit. According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, a subcontractor filed suit claiming it's owed $2.8 million. Las Vegas Stadium ...
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Billtrust Adds to Its Payment Network

Business-to-business order-to-cash solutions firm Billtrust continued to add to its Business Payments Network (BPN) earlier this week. A month after adding Comdata to the BPN, Billtrust welcomed Priority Commercial Payments in a release on July 10."As like-minded FinTechs focused on converting paper check to digital forms of commerce, we are well-p...
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Construction Job Growth Climbs Higher in June

Job growth is continuing to rise in the construction industry, where 21,000 net new jobs were added in June. Based on data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) reported a total of 7,508,000 construction jobs last month—a 3.1% increase over June 2018."Today's employment numbers indicate the economy is n...
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US Proposes Tariffs on EU Imports, Mostly Food

The U.S. proposed tariffs on goods from the European Union, totaling $4 billion, according to a recent article by Supply Chain Dive. Many of the items on the list are food-related—cheese, olives, meats, pasta and whiskey—but some metals and chemicals made the list as well.Most of the controversy surrounding these tariffs stems from a dispute over a...
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Construction Spending Saw a Decline in May

Construction spending fell during the month of May, according to a recent report by Wells Fargo. Construction expenditures dropped by 0.8%, and residential spending is still much weaker compared to public spending.Residential spending fell 0.6%, and nonresidential spending fell by almost 1%⁠—the first time nonresidential has dipped in about a year....
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June CMI Disappoints After Small Positive Trend

The June Credit Managers' Index (CMI) is not what credit professionals would have hoped for following two straight months of improvement; however, the report is not all bad despite the 0.7-point decline. June's combined reading of 55 is still comfortably within expansion territory (score above 50)."Last month we were grasping at straws and thought ...
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Contractors Show Confidence After Second Quarter’s Upswing

Contractors are looking into the past to prepare for the future and, according to the latest Commercial Construction Index (CCI), the future is positive. USG Corp. and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce recently released the second-quarter CCI, where contractors responded with more optimism than the previous quarter.On June 19, Construction Dive reported...
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Steel Industry Representatives Challenge Tariffs

Representatives from the steel industry went up to the Hill this week to challenge President Trump's tariffs on global steel imports, but the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear the case, according to Supply Chain Dive. The representatives from the steel industry argued the tariffs are unconstitutional. Since the Supreme Court refused the ...
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Capital One Enhancing B2B Footprint

Fortune 500 company Capital One is developing its business-to-business (B2B) services web. Capital One is the latest company to expand its B2B and small- and medium-sized business reach following others such as Visa, Southwest, RBS, UBS, WESCO and others. The company announced last week the acquisition of Maine-based BlueTarp Financial, which speci...
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Existing Home Sales Increase During Month of May

During the month of May, U.S. existing home sales increased by 2.5% compared to last month, reaching a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.34 million units, according to a recent article by Reuters. Lower interest rates for mortgages helped give the data a boost this month.Reuters speculated the existing home sale rate would reach 5.25 million uni...
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