In the US almost every Tuesday until the midterms tends to mean somewhere there is a political vote – to who will run for each party and then finally in the November midterms. After that, depending on the results, the campaign for the Presidency will heat up as President Trump second term will end. In the meantime, the economy or pocketbook issues or affordability is one of the key issues.

In an article by Paul Wiseman of the Associated Press, key economic measures are reported quarterly by the Commerce Department and growth is running at 1.5%. Growth in the US GDP (gross domestic product) decelerated from 2.1% in the first 3 months of 2026 to 1.5%. Consumer spending which accounts for 70% of economic activity increased to 3.2%, up 0.5%.

Business investment excluding housing rose at 8.4% down from 10.6%, but still strong thanks to the AI investments.

Imports rose at 11.5%, once again thanks to computer chips and other AI investments.

Olu Sonola, head of US economics at Fitch Ratings noted AI investments remains a powerful growth story, but the import surge underpinning the buildout is a reminder that an AI boom does not automatically translate into an equally large boost to the US GDP.

The Commerce Department said its Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) rose 3.7%, down from 4.1%.

The American economy has been surprisingly resilient in the face of the Iran war and the spick in energy prices it caused. The job market bounced back this year from a lackluster 2025, giving consumers the wherewithal to spend.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, we all have a bias and bias tends to be country and regional based or we picked stocks what we are located. Since that is a bias, examining how the US economy and in particular what part where your stocks are concentrated allows you to determine how the companies should be doing. There is nothing wrong with a bias, just understand you have one and adjust your investments accordingly in terms of how much diversification you have or want to have.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.

In every country around the world, the central bank plays an oversized role in the economy of the country. The Central Bank or in the US Federal Reserve sets monetary policy or interest rates. In the capitalist world, business runs on credit and lower the interest rate the better. It is the same for the individual, the lower the interest rate that you have to pay, the better it is for the consumer. The problem is inflation and the Federal Reserve must do things to ensure inflation does not get out of control. The Federal Reserve however does not run government policies; the administration does that. At times, what the administration does contributes to inflation, particularly at elections – a chicken in every pot. It is a good election slogan, but it contributes to rising inflation, because somebody has to supply all those chickens at a price every consumer can afford.

In an article by Colby Smith of The New York Times News Service, the late July meeting of the US Federal Reserve kept interest rates the same at 3.5 to 3.75%, a level that has been in place since January.

The Federal examines what is happening in the economy such as oil prices increase and decrease due to the Straits of Hormuz opening and closing because of the war in Iran; President Trump adding another round of tariffs; ICE and sweeping immigration affect on the labor force; the AI boom for chips and people to build the data centers. and the normal cycles of the economy.

The Federal Reserve Chair is Kevin Warsh, his reputation when he was on the Federal Reserve in the past was an inflation fighter. He wants inflation to be near 0. The problem is overall consumer prices were 3.5% higher in June than a year earlier, down from a 4.2% annual rate in May.

The Federal Reserve has a target of 2%.

On the Bond markets, longer dated Treasury yields are up and closing on its peak from May of 5.2%. That was highest level since 2007.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, with low inflation, the stock market is the best alternative, when inflation rises its head and interest rates rise, parking your money in safe secure Treasuries at above 5% is a good alternative. If you can receive higher yields on very good corporate debt, that is even better. In every market there is an alternative, part of your homework is to know what alternatives are for you.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.

After you have accumulated wealth, eventually you will spend some of it. Part of it is to carry on a lifestyle you enjoy, part of it is to consider giving to family members or your the charities that you support at a lower level. Now you can add zeros to those donations. Many people also buy what are considered luxury items, because they can and they know all things being reasonably equal they will have the same or similar income next year.

In an article by Dominique Patton of Reuters, the French based luxury giant LVMH had better sales in the second quarter as demand from affluent US shoppers helped offset weaker spending in Europe, where tourism has been hit by the Iran war.

Sales of brands such as Louis Vuitton, Dior and Moet & Chandon rose 3% to $31.3 billion broadly in line with what analysts were expecting according to Visible Alpha. (if you watch Formula One racing, the winners always open Moet & Chandon champagne when they win, just long enough for photographers to capture the moment).

In the US, sales were up 6%. The watches and jewelry division was the fastest growing division with sales up 11%.

Tiffany and Bulgari posted growth in the mid-teens as jewelry was favored more than soft luxury categories.

The fashion and leather goods division which generates the bulk of LVMH’s profit, was up 1% thanks to US consumers.A few years ago, the leaders in sales were the shops in China.

If you missed it, Taylor Swift’s wedding dress was designed by Dior.

European luxury brands have stepped up their focus on the US opening stores and staging fashion events.

The luxury brand business is a $400 billion sector and has emerged from a 2 year downturn.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, the idea is to accumulate wealth so you have many options. The option to retire and continue your lifestyle, the option to give money away and the option to buy the brands you want or always wanted to have. That is a good thing and dividend investing helps achieve that goal.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.

When Russia invaded Ukraine, one of the many actions European Countries decided was not to use Russian oil and gas. This was not an easy thing to actually do, it was actually easier to say than do. The reason was Europe is beside Russia and over the years Europe was dependent on Russian oil and gas. Germany and Italy had up to 60% of their oil and gas coming from Russia and if the second pipeline which was in progress to be built went into operations the number likely would be higher. When the sanctions of Russia went agreed to, Germany and Italy were hoping for the war to end quickly. The war continues, which means Europe has moved to other sources.

In an article by Lisa Friedman of The New York Times News Service, in less than 6 months the European Union will end the last of its LNG (Liquefied natural gas) imports, a major step to keep Russia from using its resources dollars to fund the war efforts.

The alternative which has been shifted to is the US. The US producers now supply about 2/3’s of European LNG and that could rise to 80% by the end of decade.

Under normal circumstances the shift from Russia to the US is not a problem, however President Trump has isolated the US and thrown his periodic demands to control Greenland, imposing tariffs, lessening co-operation with Europe’s institutions, and becoming less of a partner and asset to Europe.

Once Russian cargoes stop flowing, much of the gap will be filled with by American LNG. The US currently supplies about 2/3’s of Europe LNG, compared with about a quarter of it in 2021. Nigeria and Qatar supply most of the rest. For natural gas delivered by pipeline, Europe relies on supplies Norway and Algeria.

However, while it is easier for LNG to flow back and forth to Europe, the European Union imposed a methane regulation which Energy Secretary Wright believes the regulations need to be relaxed or supplies could go elsewhere.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, in all business there are alternatives, some alternatives need many government regulations to become viable but there are alternatives. When there are alternatives, eventually consumers will use them to some degree, particularly if the existing companies are not solving problems. Alternatives start when there is a problem. For your investments, always ask what are the alternatives and how are they doing?

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.

In the US, President Trump loves oil and gas and does not like solar and electric vehicles. In the US that means companies such as Ford and GM have to over emphasize their gasoline engines, However Ford and GM are both multinational corporations with operations around the globe.

In an article by Alexa St. John of the Associated Press, Ford Motor Corporation and Geely Auto announced to joint manufactured low and zero emission vehicles at Ford’s Valencia, Spain factory.

The Chinese companies are dominating auto sales across the globe, so Ford has to reignite Ford’s offerings for the European auto market.

In the US, policy all but locks Chinese firms out of the market – through American automakers still partner with companies in China for production and Chinese vehicles are making inroads in North America more broadly.

The joint venture with be 2/3’s by Ford and 1/3 by Geely. Among the brands Geely owns are Volvo, Polestar and more.

Under the partnership, Ford plans to continue production of the Ford Kuga plug-in hybrid vehicle and begin a new Bronco SUV in 2028. Geely plans to make 2 electric SUVs at the plant starting in 2028. In addition, a new multi-energy crossover model will be made in 2028.

Ford will sell about 500,000 vehicles this year, down from 1 million a decade ago.

Chinese companies have the momentum with them as they have been producing high quality and efficient hybrid and pure EVs – coined new energy vehicles with advanced technology at a low price point. Chinese companies have expanded in other countries in Asia, Latin America and parts of Europe.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, every large company balances the wishes of the government at their home country and the regulations in other countries, ideally trying to keep costs down and make a profit and for shareholders to pay a dividend. It is a tough balancing act, but one that needs to be done to meet consumer demands.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.

Often companies take their tone from the President of the country, and in the US, President Trump as a citizen Trump has his law firm on overdrive with lawsuits anytime he feels he has not been put in the best possible light. When acting AG Blanche was in his confirmation hearing, the law firm which he worked for was paid $9 million before he came to work for President Trump in Washington. Mr. Blanche said it was the law firm, but every partner knows exactly how much money is coming to them, it would be a very rare partner or managing partner that would not know what his compensation is.

In an article by Magie Fick and Michael Erman of Reuters, in the past few years the rise of weight loss drugs has been the most significant aspect in the drug industry. Two companies led the way because of their work on diabetes, one of the side affects of the drug was it caused weight loss. For generations, weight loss has been a billion dollar industry and it has only gotten worse as the average weight of people in the developed world increased. For years there has been clubs such as Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, many people belong and use gyms which includes weights. The reality is if it was possible to lose weight be taking a pill, there would be a huge demand, which company would led.

Novo Nordisk which is headquarters in Denmark has been the world leader, but Eli Lilly which is headquartered in the US was second. The first applications was injections, but Lilly came up with a pill first. The market for weight loss drugs is expected to reach $100 billion by 2030.

Novo Nordisk sued Eli Lilly accusing the drug maker of false advertising in claiming its weight loss medicines outperform Novo’s drugs.

Novo alleges Lilly compared the highest approved doses of its medicines with lower doses of Novo’s Wegovy and Ozempic which omitting newer, higher dose versions that Novo says delivered weight loss.

In the world of pharmaceutical companies, they regularly sued each other for patent infringements. There are some generic companies that have a large legal departments as a course of doing business. False advertising suits are less common, because they are harder to prove and every drug company has a history of stretching the line of truth, for sometimes placebos work because the patient believes they are taking something that will make them better.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, for drug companies the important aspect is what patents do they have? how long do they have to run? how well do they work before the generic brand comes out? Try not to pay attention to the advertising but the patents.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.

If you listen to the economists, one of the good things for the economy is the spending on AI infrastructure that translates into many companies. Big tech alone is expected to spend $700 billion to a $1 trillion dollars on AI this year and next. With all that spending how are the companies doing?

In an article by Deborah Mary Sophia and Kenrick Cai of Reuters, Alphabet reported its earnings for the quarter and they were worth waiting for.

Revenue in Google Cloud rose 82% to $24.8 billion on strong demand from AI hungry enterprises worldwide. Analysts were expecting 64% increase.

Advertising revenue was $81.6 billion compared to estimates of $81.1 billion. Total revenue for the quarter was $119.8 billion beating the estimates of $116.9 billion.

Capital expenditures or capex, Alphabet said they will spend between $195 and $205 billion next year.

Adjusted profit per share was $2.85 slightly below the estimated $2.89. The company reported negative free cash flow for the first time in history, burning $5.9 billion.

Thomas Monteiro, senior analysts at Investing.com noted the market’s most reliable cash generators are now spending more than they bring in. As long as revenue keeps accelerating, investors will tolerate it. But capital has a real cost again, and the room for error is shrinking for every quarter.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, many years ago big tech disrupted the advertising business and had great margins or cash flowed to the companies. Are margins down a bit? the company is still making money and has dominate positions but every quarter tells a story.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.

For the past few years, we have surging AI race and while there are many winners, most of us in America tend to follow companies in America. However, there are other countries which means there are other companies and perhaps they will be the competition for America’s firms.

In an article by Samuel Shen and Kane Wu of Reuters, Chinese startup Moonshot AI has paused new subscriptions because demand is too high for its services. Moonshot AI has launched Kimi K3.

The company has engaged financial advisors including Goldman Sachs and China International Capital Corp (CICC) to discuss an IPO on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

The company was founded by Yang Zhilin, an AI researcher who pursed his doctoral studies at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburg.

Moonshot AI has raised more than $2 billion from investors including Meituan, China Mobile and CPE bringing the total raised over $5.5 billion. The $2 billion raised suggests the company has a valuation of $30 billion.

The company has 2 types of membership – one for coding and more inclusive package to help match compute resources with user demand.

Kimi K3 size and focus on coding and agent style tasks make it more expensive to serve at scale, as such workflows typically require repeated model calls and heavy inference capacity.

While open-weight models allow users to download and customize the underlying system, analysts say few users are likely to host a model of Kimi K3’s scale because of the hardware costs involved.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, there is always competition in the industry, and often we focus on the local, regional or national, but companies do the same thing exist outside of the borders. With most industry price matters and cost efficiency is a diver to try out the competition. The company may come back but they begin to allocate a little less resources each year to save costs. It is difficult to be profitable on a yearly basis, but always ask the CEO who is the competition?

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.

For any community you live in, one of the things you like to see is companies making their headquarters or making their presence in your community. Ideally, that means people need to work in the location which means people will need to live in the area buying homes, renting places and all the activity which surrounds companies expanding. This is a good thing and can make where you live more livable.

In an article by Hyunjoo Jin of Reuters, Samsung Electronics which is headquartered in South Korea, had made its headquarters in the US in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey with other operations centered in Texas. The company has many operations and invariably one of more operations are doing very well.

All companies can locate wherever they wish to, but the odd part is Samsung Electronics America (SEA) settled into the New Jersey location less than a year ago, employing 1,200 workers. Recently SEA is downsizing 739 roles and moving operations to Plano, Texas.

Samsung’s other division is making chips and making chips has sent profits up 19 fold on strong AI-driven chip demand. Samsung in investing hundreds of billions of dollars on new chip plants.

The mobile division is expected to post its first ever loss as it grapples with competition from Apple. Chinese competition such as TCL and Hisense are challenging Samsung in TV and home appliances.

Samsung has joined other companies such as Tesla and Oracle moving to Texas known for lower taxes and business friendly environment. Samsung had 11.770 employees in the US at the end of 2025.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, while it is wonderful to get a headquarters in the area and perhaps that is one of the reasons to consider investing in the company, the reality is companies make decisions and sometimes it affects people and allocating less resources to formerly key divisions. As an investor you like the company made the tough decision, if the company was leaving the area where you are from, you have mixed feelings.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.