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This week's highlights:
Tariffs on. Tariffs off. The whiplash around President Donald Trump's trade wars stayed largely confined to the courts and not the markets. Investors took the back and forth over the legality of Trump's tariffs largely in stride. The Morningstar US Market Index gained roughly 1%, with most sectors showing little movement over the course of the week.
As Preston Caldwell, Morningstar's senior US economist, noted, a further pullback on tariffs would be good news. However, there are other routes that the president could take to impose tariffs, and the overall level of tariffs would still see a significant increase and have an impact on the economy. Read more of Caldwell's take on the latest tariff news here.
One area of concern for the economy since the harsher-than-expected tariff rollout on April 2 has been consumers. Consumer sentiment fell off a cliff in wake of that announcement, but, as Sarah Hansen reports, economists find reasons for optimism about the outlook for consumer spending, a cornerstone of the US economy.
When it comes to the economy, there are a lot of variables to watch. Check out our new piece tracking the health of the US economy.
While we still have a couple of weeks before the next Federal Reserve meeting, other key central banks are meeting in the week ahead. That includes the Bank of Canada as well as the European Central Bank where officials are also wrestling with the uncertainty spinning out of the trade wars.
Back in the stock market, Morningstar Index's Dan Lefkovitz looks at an interesting question for value investors. In the US, value strategies have been left in the dust. But outside the US, it's the opposite story. Why is that? Find out here.
Speaking of value investing, this week we take a look at some US large-value funds that have managed to make the market work for them. Gabe Alpert highlights seven top performers in the large-value category, which happens to include some of the best-known names in the space.
Lastly, David Harrell, editor of the Morningstar DividendInvestor newsletter, highlights 13 quality stocks with fast-growing dividends. It's a list that includes a handful of retailers, a semiconductor stock, and one of Wall Street's most storied companies.