Stephen Gandel, Columnist

401(k)s Could Be a Casualty of Trump’s Trade War

Americans rely on the S&P 500, which relies on overseas business.

July 2, 2018 at 1:51 PM UTC

Stephen Gandel is a former Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering banking and equity markets. He was previously a deputy digital editor for Fortune and an economics blogger at Time. He has also covered finance and the housing market.

Collateral damage.
Photographer: Jorge Guerrero/AFP/Getty Images

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Donald Trump’s brewing trade war could have another collateral victim: Americans’ retirement savings.

The second quarter officially ended on Friday. By next week, large U.S. companies will start reporting how they did during the period. Most analysts think those reports will be rosy. Overall, earnings for companies in the S&P 500 Index are expected to rise slightly more than 20 percent from a year ago, which is the second fastest quarterly pace since 2010, according to FactSet. Sales are are expected to be up an average of nearly 9 percent.