Economists say there are no winners in a trade war, and American farmers, appliance companies and automakers are proof that tariffs can inflict financial harm.
But if you're using the stock market as a measure of who's winning the trade dispute, the U.S. has a clear lead over China and its other trading partners.
While stock prices are just one way of gauging who's feeling more of the ill effects of tariffs, there's no disputing that shares of U.S. companies are performing better than China-based stocks and other foreign markets, says Alec Young, the New York-based managing director of global markets research for FTSE Russell.
"There's a lot of ways to judge this, and I expect a lot of twists and turns, but if we just look through the lens of the market, we've seen a much stronger U.S. stock performance," Young says.
So why are shares of U.S. companies holding up better
Reasons include:
U.S. is negotiating from position of strength
The tariff dispute comes at a time when the U.S. economy is performing extremely well, Warne says. And that enables President Donald Trump to negotiate a better deal from a position of strength.
Corporate profits are on track to grow by more than 20 percent for the second consecutive quarter, its best back-to-back performance since 2010. The U.S. jobless rate is at an 18-year low. And the economy is picking up, with economists forecasting second-quarter GDP growth of 4 percent, which would mark the fastest pace since 2014. China, as well as Europe and Japan, is experiencing slowing growth.
https://usatoday.com/story/money/2018/07/26/stock-market-says-u-s-winning-trade-war/832596002/
