An Unlikely Front in\nthe Economic Battle Against China \u2013 <\/strong>Many economic battles are being waged\nbetween the West and China, as the world\u2019s second largest economy (China)\nangles to become the most important on the world stage. One of the unlikely\nfronts in the economic battle: magnets. Magnets have far more critical uses\nthan many might expect. They are key components in electric vehicles, wind\nturbines, and a slew of other next generation technology. In other words,\ndemand for magnets is likely to press higher from here. The problem in the\nmarketplace currently is that China mines over 70% of the world\u2019s rare earths and\nis responsible for 90% of the process of turning them into magnets. What\u2019s\nmore, China can both mine and convert rare earths at a much lower cost than\nother developed countries, given state subsidies, lower labor costs, and a\ndecades-long head start on the technology needed to process the rare earths.\nThe West is not necessarily sitting idly by \u2013 businesses are posturing for\ngovernment support to ramp up supply chains for producing magnets at a lower\ncost, but maybe years or even decades away from contributing a steady supply.\nPresident Biden signed an executive order in February directing a review of\nsupply chains for critical materials, in an effort to take steps to diversify\naway from China.1<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n ______________________________________________________________________________________________<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n Looking to Retire Soon? Here\u2019s a Start!<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The market has been very volatile for the last few months, and for many investors, witnessing the highs and lows of the market can lead to many concerns for the future. For those investors who are trying to build their retirement portfolio, having mixed feelings is quite normal during this time. We want you to feel confident in your financial decision-making process, and to start, making a detailed retirement plan can help alleviate some anxiety and help you to retire with peace of mind. <\/p>\n\n\n\n To help you do this, we are offering readers our free guide\nthat provides a step-by-step blueprint to potentially help you build a sound\nretirement portfolio. This guide offers you a checklist of the most important\nfinancial, tax, and investment considerations for new retirees, with detailed\nexplanations to help you prepare for this new stage in your life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you have $500,000 or more to invest, get our\nfree guide today!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Download Zacks Guide, Thinking of Retiring Soon? Here are 4 Things to Consider First<\/a>2<\/a><\/sup><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n ______________________________________________________________________________________________<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n Banks Look to Be in a\nStrong Position for 2021 \u2013 <\/strong>In the years following the 2008 Global Financial\nCrisis, banks engaged in a years-long effort to recapitalize and boost their\ntier 1 capital ratios. The banks acted out of necessity \u2013 new laws required\nthem to hold a certain amount of cash on hand relative to debt and other liabilities.\nIt follows that going into the Covid-19 pandemic, banks were well-capitalized\nand ready to weather a fairly severe economic storm. Banks set aside billions\nin reserves to brace for a wave of loan losses, and they booked the reserves\nagainst profit for the first half of last year. Turns out, for banks, that\nstorm did not turn out to be as bad as many anticipated. One year later, and\nbanks are ready to release some of the \u2018rainy-day money\u2019 they set aside in the\nwake of the pandemic, which should provide a stiff tailwind to Q1 2021 earnings\nand also perhaps feed into lending in the new year. Another economic indicator\nsupporting the case for banks to do well in 2021: the yield curve. An upward\nsloping yield curve generally favors bank earnings, since banks can borrow\nmoney on the short-end of the curve and lend it out at long-term rates. The\nspread is known as a bank\u2019s net interest margins, and the steeper the yield\ncurve, the higher the profit. When the line below is rising, the yield curve is\nsteepening. Which you can see has been the case of late.3<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n The Semiconductor Shortage\nis Real \u2013 <\/strong>Global supply\nchain disruptions have created bottlenecks for many key inputs, but none\nperhaps as acute and critical as semiconductors. The issues are prevalent on\ntwo fronts: supply and demand. On the demand side, the global movement to set\nup home offices and buy new computers and other electronics led to a sharp\nincrease in the need for semiconductors. On the supply side, semiconductor\nmanufacturers did not expect demand so sustain or even go up during the\npandemic, and were caught flat-footed when it did. Semiconductors are most\noften associated with computers and electronics, but they are also critical\ncomponents of automobiles. Automakers across the spectrum, including Ford,\nToyota, Honda, and General Motors have gone as far as to halt or reduce\nproduction due to lack of essential components. One fear among economists is\nthat the semiconductor shortage will eventually find its way down into consumer\nprices, and we are starting to see early evidence of that \u2013 in March, the\naverage used vehicle cost 13% more than a year earlier.5<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n Planning Retirement Soon? Here are 4 Steps to\nConsider First<\/strong> \u2013 If you\u2019re getting close to retirement, but\nhesitant about whether this is the right time, here are some steps to consider!\nTo guide you through this new phase, we\u2019ve created our new guide to help you\nreview your financial and investment situation so you can make any adjustments\nnecessary to keep your plans and lifestyle on track. <\/p>\n\n\n\n If you have $500,000 or more to invest and want to\nunderstand your retirement options, get our guide, Thinking of Retiring\nSoon? Here are 4 Things to Consider First.<\/em>6 <\/sup>Simply click on the\nlink below to get your copy today!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Semiconductor shortage hits auto makers, rising yield curve favors banks, West challenges Chinese on magnets <\/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":[71,73],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9508","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-private-client-group","category-steady-investors-week"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zacksim.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9508","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=9508"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/zacksim.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9508\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10415,"href":"https:\/\/zacksim.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9508\/revisions\/10415"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zacksim.com\/blog\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zacksim.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zacksim.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zacksim.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/zacksim.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/8_pic1-1024x395.png\")