{"id":8348,"date":"2019-11-20T20:23:31","date_gmt":"2019-11-20T20:23:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/zackspcg.com\/blog\/?p=8348"},"modified":"2022-02-26T13:07:06","modified_gmt":"2022-02-26T13:07:06","slug":"trade-deal-obstacles-soaring-auto-debt-sec-eyes-mutual-fund-fees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zacksim.com\/blog\/trade-deal-obstacles-soaring-auto-debt-sec-eyes-mutual-fund-fees\/","title":{"rendered":"Trade Deal Obstacles, Soaring Auto Debt, SEC Eyes Mutual Fund Fees"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>In this week\u2019s Steady Investor, we look at key\nstories and the questions surrounding their market impact such as:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Are the U.S. and China actually closer to a trade\ndeal?<\/li><li>Is soaring debt in the auto markets a problem?<\/li><li>What is the SEC doing to protect everyday\ninvestors?<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Tariffs Still a\nCentral Obstacle to \u201cPhase 1\u201d of a Trade Deal? <\/strong>Markets seemed relieved in\nthe last week that the U.S. and China were nearing Phase 1 of a trade deal. The\n\u2018terms\u2019 of the trade deal appeared to be headway on agricultural purchases,\ntechnology transfer rules, and more opening of China\u2019s markets. But perhaps the\ngreatest source of relief was the notion that tariffs would be reduced or\neliminated, and that plans for future tariffs would be shelved. The reality on\nthe ground, however, seems to be much different. Much like a majority of this\ntrade dispute, there are plenty of signals that both sides are making headway \u2013\nonly to find after more details are fleshed out that the two sides actually\nremain far apart. In a speech this week at the New York Fed, President Trump\nsuggested that he could even raise tariffs substantially if the two sides\ncannot reach an agreement. Then, late last week, China refrained from putting a\nnumber on purchases of U.S. agricultural products like soybeans and pork,\nwhereas President Trump has stated the agreement is for $50 billion.<sup>1<\/sup>\nOur read on the situation is that the two sides are not any closer to reaching\na deal. &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>_________________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/go.steadyinvestor.com\/happy-retirement?source=website&amp;medium=blog&amp;term=steadyinvestor_blog_11_20_2019&amp;content=happy_retirement_guide\">Have You Overlooked Critical Retirement Plans?<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you\u2019re ready to retire, you probably have all of your\nfinancial \u201cducks\u201d in a row, which is important since that is the first step for\na successful retirement. But achieving your best retirement is about much more\nthan just being properly invested.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you are planning on retiring in the next month, two\nmonths or half a year, you need to make sure you\u2019ve considered some core\nfactors and made decisions ahead of time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To help you do this we have created our guide, <em>\u201c6 Secrets\nto a Happy Retirement.\u201d <\/em>If you have $500,000 or more to invest, get our\nfree guide today. You\u2019ll learn some of the most important \u201cbig picture\u201d ideas\nthat should be a part of your planning to help ensure a happy retirement. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/go.steadyinvestor.com\/happy-retirement?source=website&amp;medium=blog&amp;term=steadyinvestor_blog_11_20_2019&amp;content=happy_retirement_guide\">Download 6 Secrets to a Happy Retirement<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>_________________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Is Soaring Debt in\nthe Auto Market a Problem? <\/strong>10 years ago, 19% of Americans who traded in\ncars for new ones did so with negative equity. In other words, they owed more\non the car than it was worth at time of trade-in. Five years ago, that number\njumped to 28%. Today, it\u2019s up to 33%. The trend is clear that debt in the auto\nmarkets \u2013 which we would consider bad debt \u2013 is growing at a fairly rapid pace.\nWhile this may sound bad for only the consumers taking on bad debt, it\u2019s\nactually a potential negative for lenders and dealers. Lenders have a higher\nrisk of defaults on loans while dealers are allowing some of the negative\nequity to be transferred to a new loan, worsening the problem. In some cases,\nconsumer lawyers have reported seeing car loans where a person owes more than\n130% the value of the car,<sup>3<\/sup> which feels like a reckoning waiting to\nhappen. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The SEC Cracks Down\non High-Fee Mutual Funds \u2013 <\/strong>in the past year, the Securities and Exchange\nCommission (SEC) brought 526 enforcement actions for all matters of financial\nfraud and wrongdoing. But a boost to this year\u2019s tally was due to the 95\nenforcement actions brought on investment advisors for \u201cinadequately disclosing\ntheir practice of selling more expensive funds to retail clients,\u201d according to\nthe SEC. The shift in cases brought indicates that the SEC is more focused on protecting\neveryday investors, particularly those who may not be as sophisticated as\nhigher net worth or institutional investors. Of the 10 biggest fines levied by\nthe SEC, 55% of them went to individuals or shell companies that did not\nactually have real operations or proper licenses.<sup>4 <\/sup>These frequency\nand size of these fines underscores how there is still work to be done in\nweeding out corruption in the financial markets, and it also underscores how\ninvestors should look for advisors that adhere to the fiduciary standard \u2013\nmeaning they are obligated by law to act in your best interests. We adhere to\nthe fiduciary standard here at Zacks Investment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There is no way to know exactly where the market\nis headed or how these stories will pan out, but taking time to plan for your\nfinancial future can give you peace of mind in times of uncertainty. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This preparation can help make a smooth and happy transition\nto the next chapter of your life. If you are planning on retiring in the next\nmonth, two months or half a year, you need to make sure you\u2019ve considered some\ncore factors and made decisions ahead of time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To help you do this we have created our guide, \u201c6 Secrets to\na Happy Retirement.\u201d If you have $500,000 or more to invest, get our free guide\ntoday. You\u2019ll learn some of the most important \u201cbig picture\u201d ideas that should\nbe a part of your planning to help ensure a happy retirement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>SEC cracks down on high fund fees, car loan debt problem, tariffs still key roadblock with China<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":7426,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8348","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zacksim.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8348","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zacksim.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zacksim.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zacksim.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zacksim.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8348"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/zacksim.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8348\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10678,"href":"https:\/\/zacksim.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8348\/revisions\/10678"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zacksim.com\/blog\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zacksim.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8348"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zacksim.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8348"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zacksim.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8348"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}