Catch up on the top industries and stocks that were impacted, or were predicted to be impacted, by the comments, actions and policies of President Donald Trump and his administration with this weekly recap compiled by The Fly:
1. CHINA TRADE TALKS: The White House announced that officials, including Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Secretary of the Treasury Steve Mnuchin, "continued to make progress during candid and constructive discussions" on trade negotiations during their visit to China and that meetings are planned with Vice Premier Liu He and the Chinese delegation in Washington next week.
2. 'DISCRIMINATORY' HOUSING ADVERTISING PRACTICES: The Trump administration charged Facebook (FB) on Thursday with "discrimination" in its advertising practices for housing. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development announced that it is charging Facebook with violating the Fair Housing Act by "encouraging, enabling, and causing housing discrimination" through the company's advertising platform. The action follows HUD's investigation of a Secretary-initiated complaint filed on August 13, 2018. HUD alleges that Facebook "unlawfully discriminates based on race, color, national origin, religion, familial status, sex, and disability by restricting who can view housing-related ads on Facebook's platforms and across the internet. Further, HUD claims Facebook mines extensive data about its users and then uses those data to determine which of its users view housing-related ads based, in part, on these protected characteristics." After HUD announced that it is charging Facebook, The Washington Post's Tracy Jan reported that the agency is also reviewing Twitter's (TWTR) and Google's (GOOGL) ad practices.
3. MEETING WITH GOOGLE CEO: President Donald Trump said he met with the CEO of Alphabet's Google unit on Wednesday, and that it “ended very well.” In a series of tweets, Trump said that, "Just met with @sundarpichai, President of @Google, who is obviously doing quite well. He stated strongly that he is totally committed to the U.S. Military, not the Chinese Military... Also discussed political fairness and various things that @Google can do for our Country. Meeting ended very well!"
4. TRUMP PLEDGES BETTER HEALTHCARE PLAN: Earlier this week, President Trump pledged to deliver a better healthcare system than Obamacare if the Supreme Court tosses out his predecessor's signature domestic achievement, Reuters' Susan Cornwell reported. Trump defended his administration’s decision to step up its assault on the healthcare law passed under former President Obama, the Affordable Care Act, and told reporters in the oval office that, "Obamacare is a disaster. It's expensive by far. We’re coming up with plans… And if the Supreme Court rules that Obamacare is out, we will have a plan that’s far better than Obamacare." Publicly traded companies in the health insurance space include CVS Health (CVS), Anthem (ANTM), Centene (CNC), Cigna (CI), Health Net (HNT), Humana (HUM), Molina Healthcare (MOH), UnitedHealth (UNH) and WellCare (WCG).
5. STEEL TARIFFS: The CEOs from American steel producers have urged lawmakers to maintain strong U.S. tariffs on the metal to protect their industry, Reuters' David Lawder and Alexandra Alper reported. The chief executives of Nucor (NUE), U.S. Steel (X), ArcelorMittal (MT) and Commercial Metals (CMC) told the Congressional Steel Caucus that the "Section 232" steel tariffs were just starting to allow their industry to recover from damage caused by years of dumped imports and needed to be kept in place long-term, the publication noted. Trump imposed the 25% global tariffs on steel imports a year ago to protect the industry from imports.
6. FANNIE MAE, FREDDIE MAC REFORM: The White House announced earlier this week that President Donald Trump signed a Presidential memorandum initiating reform of the housing finance system. "During the financial crisis, Fannie Mae [FNMA] and Freddie Mac [FMCC] suffered significant losses and were bailed out by the Federal Government with billions of taxpayer dollars. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have been in conservatorship since September 2008," the statement read. The President is directing relevant agencies to develop a reform plan for the housing finance system. "These reforms will aim to: End the conservatorship of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and improve regulatory oversight over them; Promote competition in the housing finance market and create a system that encourages sustainable homeownership and protects taxpayers against bailouts." Further, the President is directing the Secretary of the Treasury and the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development to craft administrative and legislative options for housing finance reform. The Presidential memorandum calls for reform plans to be submitted to the President for approval as "soon as practicable."
"Week in Review" is The Fly's weekly recap of its recurring series of "Trump Effect" exclusive stories.
Ticker changed to META
+1.29 (+0.78%)
+ (+0.00%)
Alphabet
+5.15 (+0.44%)
Alphabet
+5.6 (+0.48%)
CVS Health
+0.54 (+1.01%)
Ticker changed to ELV
+4.64 (+1.64%)
Centene
+0.22 (+0.42%)
Cigna
+0.05 (+0.03%)
HNT
+
Humana
+3.29 (+1.25%)
Molina Healthcare
+3.81 (+2.76%)
UnitedHealth
+5.7 (+2.35%)
WCG
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Nucor
+0.74 (+1.28%)
U.S. Steel
+0.16 (+0.83%)
ArcelorMittal
+0.23 (+1.14%)
Commercial Metals
+0.38 (+2.25%)
Fannie Mae
+ (+0.00%)
Freddie Mac
+ (+0.00%)