😱 Did TRUMP Really JUST Announce THIS?!

This is something we never hear a president say. Trump tells Walmart to quote, eat the tariffs after a retailer warned it will raise prices. And we've already heard from the Walmart executives. They don't want to raise prices. They already know their consumers are struggling financially. They know wealthy people are trading down to Walmart and they have no other options because if you can't afford Walmart, where else are you really going to go for all of your stuff? And so this is an issue because Walmart already knows if they raise prices, demand is going down, which is why we continue to hear from them and a lot of other retailers. We're doing everything we can, but the problem is we can't do anything about the tariffs. Walmart should stop trying to blame tariffs as a reason for raising prices throughout the chain. Trump wrote on true social, but the question is what would we blame for the prices going up? You know, you go back to after the pandemic, what happened? We saw disinflation across the consumer price index. And why did we see this? Because without government stimulus, consumers could not afford to continue to spend at the current rate they were spending before. And all of a sudden demand is going down and that's why we continue to see price pressures fall. But yet all of a sudden a shock is hitting the system, driving prices up. And Trump says they shouldn't blame it on the tariffs. But the question is, what should we blame it on? I want to know from you, are the price hikes you're seeing due to tariffs or is it something else? Weigh in the comments below. Between Walmart and China, they should, as it said, eat the tariffs and not charge valued customers anything. I'll be watching and so will your customers. Well, there's no doubt that customers are watching because they don't have as much money to spend. They have nothing else better when they go to the store to do but watch how they're spending their money. And this is why we're seeing a lot of retailers say that foot traffic's going down. And then when people do come to shop, they're being very selective because again, paychecks relative to inflation, well, they're shrinking. And that means, of course, the dollar for a lot of American households isn't going as far. Walmart CFO John Rainey said in an interview that we've not seen price increases at this magnitude in the speed at which they're coming to us before. So it makes for a challenging environment. And in the case of Walmart and other retailers, yes, there are times they do raise prices and they have to raise prices. But businesses like Walmart don't want to rapidly raise prices because they know already that their consumer base cannot afford them. And what he's saying is, look, there's going to be a shock to the system and it's coming very, very soon. The question is, if it isn't due to the tariffs, what is it? Because we know the real issue here is that paychecks are shrinking relative to inflation. And that's exactly why we've been seeing inflation come down. Let's take a look at the Consumer Price Index in blue against average weekly hours of production and non-supervisor employees. And we can see a very strong relationship throughout history that as prices rise and paychecks shrink relative to inflation, well, what happens is spending goes down and you go into a recession. And we see that relationship throughout the existing economic cycles. And what have we seen over the last couple of years is that hours worked have been on the decline. And what we're hearing from a lot of employers and surveys is that hours worked are going to get cut even more. But I've circled 33.5 because this is a critical line. You can see when it gets to this level of hours worked don't turn up, it means we're likely headed into a recession. The risk here now is that consumer prices, due to the tariffs, are likely going higher according to what we're hearing from Walmart at the same time. Consumers can't afford them. And this is the reality that the Trump administration knows, that President Trump knows. If we don't see demand increase here, if it goes the opposite direction, the foregone conclusion is the U.S. economy is indeed headed into a recession. And Rainey said he's pleased with the progress that's been made by the Trump administration on tariffs from the levels that were announced in early April, but says they're still too high. And that is despite a 90-date reprieve that lowered duties on Chinese imports to 30%. Goods from dozens of other countries still face a 10% tariff. Now I want to know what you think. Has enough progress been made on this trade war? Are you happy with the direction it's going? Or do you think more needs to be done? Because he said that the retailer wants to keep his prices lower than his competitors, especially at a time when shoppers are seeking discounts. And again, it's not that people don't just want discounts. Yes, we all want to save money. The reality is, is people don't have a choice. They're not getting the hours they want. They're not getting the pay raises. And what we're seeing in consumer sentiment surveys is that demand for employees is likely going down because demand for goods and services is plunging. And this is a problem because Walmart already knows if they have to raise prices, this means consumers are going to spend significantly less on the discretionary side of the economy. And when you pair this all together, again, foregone conclusion, it's not pretty. To do that, he said Walmart will absorb some of the tariff-related higher costs and they expect suppliers to absorb some costs too. But he said the company will try to work with suppliers to keep prices as low as we can, suggesting that there's absolutely nothing they can do after a certain point. They're going to do everything they can. But this is also going to hit the bottom line of a lot of companies. And this is a marked difference that we saw from Trump's first administration where he wanted the equity markets to go higher. But if companies have to absorb tariffs and suppliers have to absorb them, what we'll suggest is that potentially the market could go down. But even if that happens, it doesn't mean your trading account has to go with it. Check out this trade we put out to our Momentum Timer Pro subscribers back on April 30th. We told them to buy BITQ or Bitcoin Innovators on the open and on the 15th of May, they were stopped out for a massive 18.89% gain. Now if you trade Momentum Signals and want to generate returns like this, grab the links in the description below, use a coupon code for your free 30-day trial. Stay tuned to the end of the show and I'll show you exactly how you can make big money trading Momentum. Because the issue is when you face rising consumer prices at the same time the labor market is starting to show weakness, well you have a major problem. This is exactly the warning we're hearing from Walmart and the same reason, again, President Trump is telling them, look, you need to absorb this because they need to keep consumer spending. If they keep spending, that means they have jobs. But if they cut spending, the labor market's going to go. And here you can see when I overlay the unemployment rate in red against the consumer price index, you can see periods back like in the late 1980s when prices were rising relative to paychecks that were shrinking. What happens? People get on the unemployment line. You see it happen going to the dot-com bubble and the global financial crisis. In fact, the risk I'm seeing is what we're facing right now is due to the tariffs. The same thing we saw in the energy shock that sent prices rising during the financial crisis could send us right into another one. But right now, what are we facing? Rising prices at the same time that the unemployment rate is already on the rise and now projected by many experts to even go higher. The risk is, again, for the U.S. economy. If we see prices increase significantly, those this is going to mean for the U.S. economy and for a lot of U.S. consumers is we're headed in a place that's going to lead to mass unemployment and a lot of outrage. And this is why Trump now says he's willing to travel to China for a Xi Jinping meeting and no doubt about that, he needs to get this trade war over and fast. That's why we're going to see a lot of deals over the next couple of weeks. And hopefully a lot of consumers will like that. But the question is, is the shock to the economy from the trade war already too much? Is a recession at this point a foregone conclusion or is there a path out of this? I want to know from you. Weigh in the comments. Do you think if we resolve this quickly, everything returns to normal or you think it's too little too late? I would certainly. Trump asked if he wanted to visit Xi on a foreign trip, adding that the relationship between China and the U.S. was, quote, important, and indeed it is. We need them just as much as they do. The U.S. president's second term has repeatedly expressed an eagerness to speak with the Chinese leader early in the week. He predicted the two might talk by phone after their deputies negotiated a temporary truce in the trade war that was sparked by Trump imposing dramatic tariffs on Chinese goods. And yes, there is a point where they're going to talk. But I want you to know exactly kind of what the plan here is, where he's going to try to make a lot of other deals with a lot of other countries and put the pressure on China. I think that's how it plays out. That's my view. Maybe you have a different one way in the comments because the issue that's facing the Trump administration right now is everything to do with the U.S. consumer and the fact that sentiment is plunging. And that is a big sign that people are worried about their finances and government policy right now. And you can see the relationship as we overlay the University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Survey in blue against average weekly hours of production and non-supervisor employees in red. That sentiment is highly tied to finances. And what are we hearing from consumers right now that their outlook is as bleak as it was back in 2009? And keep in mind, that was coming out of the global financial crisis. So this is the outlook that people have. And when they feel that way, when they think prices are going to go up on things that they have to spend, and they feel that maybe perhaps gas prices as well as rents are going to continue to rise, that means they're going to have to spend less on the discretionary side. But in many cases, they're going to tighten their belt. They're going to start saving because when you start worrying about losing your job, you got to have some money in the bank and any consumption-based economy that's already slowing down will put you in a nightmare scenario. So again, the real issue the Trump administration is facing is plunging confidence has everything to do with the fact that businesses are seeing demand fall. They're going to be forced to cut hours. And if they're going to take a hit at the margin, and I think this is a big issue that you're going to see a lot of companies choose to defend their margin as long as they can. And that means cut one of the biggest and last expenses that they can, and that's workers. And so right now, what we're facing is a continued downtrend in hours work at a time where consumers got hopeful for a bit and now reality is setting in. Despite signaling an eagerness to reach out to the Chinese leader, Trump portrayed a just completed visit to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates as designed to keep countries outside of Beijing's sphere of influence. And again, I think the plan here is to go around and make a bunch of deals with a lot of other countries and then force China's hand again. That's my view. Yours might be a bit different. Meanwhile, Canada says most hairs on the U.S. remain, which comes to me as a bit of a shock and think we would have had this resolved. But that's one of the issues we're facing is the trade war right now is ongoing. We're going to see this impact consumer prices. And there really is no answer for this right now, except for the fact that consumers are about to pay a lot more. And they know that 70 percent of the counter tariffs implemented by Canada and March are still in place. The government temporarily and publicly paused tariffs on some items for health and public safety reasons. But meanwhile, the reality of what's happening in the economy is starting to set in as a grim economic outlook overtakes solid earnings as tariff disruptions surface. And that's what we're seeing, because the biggest disruption to come is exactly what Wal-Mart's telling us is that consumers aren't going to be able to afford higher prices. They're going to spend less. And as they spend less, it's back feeds all throughout the supply chain. What you're going to find out is new orders that manufacturers are going to plunge. The backlogs they have are getting worked through. We're seeing that in the services sector already. And next thing you know, businesses are going to have no choice. They're going to lay people off. And when that happens, well, we're going to spiral right out of control. Corporations across the U.S., Europe and China are pulling their forecast for a year of providing grim outlooks, citing rising costs, weak consumer sentiment and a lack of business confidence as a result of the worldwide trade offensive. And that's one thing we do see is when confidence falls, spending goes right along with it. And what's facing a lot of businesses right now, they finally got their profit margins up. They're finally relieved to see some sort of margin and breathing room. And all of a sudden that's going to come plunging down along with something else, because a lot of companies love rising prices because it means they can raise prices, pass it on to consumers and see their profit margins go up. And that's what the equity market likes. But I want you to keep in mind there are periods where you see rising prices and they don't get passed on consumers. What happens? Corporate profits after tax return in red decelerate. And that means you go right into a recession. You see the real issue here is what I think we're facing a repeat of, and that is a rising consumer price index due to energy prices going into the financial crisis. At the same time, what we saw is due to the fact that consumers had to spend more on energy prices, other spending declined. What happened? Right into a financial crisis. And what are we facing now? Again, rising prices due to tariffs. At the same time, a lot of businesses are looking at their profit margin and they're going to see it shrink. And for investors right now, that is a dangerous sign. Now, we do want to keep in mind, I think we can absolutely see a melt up in stocks here. Don't be surprised if that happens. But at some point, reality is going to set in. And we look at the Nasdaq 100 now overlaid against corporate profits. You can see at first profits come down and then reality hits the equity markets. I think that day here is indeed coming. And when you see those both happen together, once again, a recession or financial crisis is indeed a foregone conclusion. And meanwhile, Trump says the Fed must lower rates after staff inflation report. This I totally agree with, because, again, the Fed's been talking for months on end about how inflation is the real issue. Now, Walmart's saying, look, prices are going to go higher. The Fed's worried about that. And that means the CPI could go up. But there's a problem. And we've talked about this before. Prices can go up. But if consumers don't pay them, well, they're going to stay up for long. No inflation and prices of gasoline, energy, groceries and practically everything else are down, Trump wrote on a social media post. The Fed must lower the rate like Europe and China have done. What's wrong with too late, pal? Do you agree with him? Should the Fed be cutting rates? Should they be standing pat? Or maybe you think they should raise them way in the comments below, because the truth is, when inflation goes down, the Fed does react as we take a look at the consumer price index overlaid against the federal fund rate in red. We can see in prior cycles that as inflation rolls over, the Fed does get aggressive in its rate cuts. Now, there are cycles like the financial crisis where energy prices are clearly driving consumer prices higher. And yet the Fed cuts anyways. Where are we at now? Well, tariffs likely sending the consumer price index higher. We know they're going to get rejected. Meanwhile, we can see that inflation has been cooling off and yet the Fed still standing pat. Many now saying that they're going to be holding rates sometime to the end of the year. And while Bostick says it's exactly what he sees, as far as Bostick says, he sees one rate cut this year and no recession. I have no idea what he's looking at because all of the indicators suggest it's the exact path of the U.S. economy. But I just want you to see that those appointed in charge of things like monetary policy appear to be completely clueless. I have one cut for the year, he said, in part because I think the uncertainty is unlikely to resolve itself quickly. And that's the problem, because the longer you have uncertainty, Bostick, the less people spend businesses. They don't want to go out and invest. They don't want to build products. Consumers, they want to tighten their belt because they're worried about the labor market. So, yes, the longer you have uncertainty, the worse it's going to get. And can't you see that Walmart's telling you very clearly consumers can't afford higher prices, meaning, yes, we could see them go up. And then what's going to happen? They're going to come right back down. This uncertainty, Bostick, not a good look for the Fed here. That means our policy is going to have to anticipate, which clearly they're not doing, and to some extent potentially push against those inflationary forces to the extent as we do see them. So they'll put a limit on where our current policy stance is. So what the Fed wants you to believe is that they can control the inflation caused by the tariffs. But in reality, we already know it's been shrinking paychecks relative to rising inflation. It's too much debt and a weakening labor market that mean the price increases are going to be rejected. The last thing we need right now is interest rates to stay up. What a lot of consumers would love right now, because we see the delinquency rate rising, they'd love the Fed to cut so that maybe the banks would lower the interest rate on their credit card. What have we seen in some of the reports that more and more American households are making the minimum payment? There should be a huge red flag to the Fed. Once again, they just can't see it because the reality is we come back to this chart of the consumer price index against average weekly hours of production and non-supervisor employees. And what do we see as paychecks shrink relative to rising inflation? You go into recession again, this uncertainty that the Fed cannot see because they don't know how it's going to play out. And so we come back to the beginning of the show, Trump telling Walmart, you better not raise prices. People are watching. Well, yes, everybody is watching. The reality is the tariffs are too big. The suppliers, retailers, they can't absorb the whole thing. Consumer prices are indeed going up and for the U.S. economy, it means we're about to head in the wrong direction. But even though the economy is likely to turn down, doesn't mean your trading account has to go with it. Let's take a look at that trade on BITQ to our Momentum Timer Pro subscribers that closed out an impressive 18.89% gain. Now, if you want to trade momentum signals and make a bunch of money, this is how we do it. We aggregate all those technical indicators and we look for when they're oversold and coming out of oversold conditions. But there's one key thing. If you're always buying an oversold stock, you find out if something is oversold, can have a very quick rally and then go down even more. But when you pair it with a rising trend, you get a very strong signal. We backtested that and our backtested results that have great returns. Well, they show up on our hot list each and every day. Plus, you get the daily one month, three month and six month momentum signals across a broad equity, bond, currency and commodity markets. And we run this report each and every day. That's what you get. Plus, all of the tradable signals and my opinion on the best trades. That's right. I review all the trades and tell you these are the ones I think you should take. I give you risk control levels, a full tracking of all the open trades in return, a weekly update. And here's the best part of all. You don't even have to put out a dime to try a report. We give you a 30 day free trial. How do you do that? Grab the links in description below. Use a coupon code for your free 30 day trial. And with that, I'm Steve Van Meter. Thanks for watching. Thanks for being fans. Bye now.