Amid gridlock in boardrooms and Congress on proposals to improve worker pay and employment conditions, state governments have taken the lead, forcing companies to raise minimums and add benefits.

Sterling’s retreat combined with a rising oil price to help the FTSE 100 rebound from a four-month low.

WITH the recent positive news from the US and Mexico reaching a trade deal last week, the general sentiment of the market got a lift. US President Donald Trump said that he would terminate the existing Nafta (North American Free Trade Agreement) deal to go into this current new deal with Mexico.

Here’s another reason why investors need not worry much about an economic implosion.

Funding Circle, a British peer-to-peer lending marketplace, on Monday said it will list its shares on the London Stock Exchange’s main market, with Danish billionaire Anders Povlsen pledging to buy at last 10 percent of the company.

• Seventy-three percent of roughly 200 investment professionals in Shanghai and Beijing said in August that they predicted positive returns for mainland Chinese stocks, a J.P. Morgan survey showed.
• One in three, or 33 percent, forecast gains of 5 to 15 percent domestic stocks, known as A shares.
• The recent market drop has brought down the price of some good quality companies to a more attractive valuation, according to Eric Bian, investment specialist at J.P. Morgan Asset Management.

A majority of mainland Chinese investors expect the battered local stock market to rise over the next 12 months, according to a J.P. Morgan Asset Management survey released Monday.

Equity Analysis and News Dow Jones Industrial Average: Trend Remains Moderately Bullish DAX: Bearish Sequence Brings July Lows in Focus Dow Jones Industrial Average: Trend Remains Moderately Bullish Another week of gains for the Dow Jones with the index now hovering around the 26,000 level. Eyes are on for a weekly close above 26,000, which will likely confirm that the uptrend in the index is still intact. Alongside this, the Dow Jones is still playing catch up relative to its US counterparts, which have hit record highs.

Ford Motor Co. is unlikely to be the last to say forget it to a vehicle that doesn’t make financial sense for the U.S. market anymore thanks to Donald Trump’s trade wars.

The market may begin looking different after Labor Day.

US consumers are hungry for credit card rewards. Seventy-five percent now have a rewards program attached to their most preferred card, up from 58% two years ago. And with consumer debt practically hitting pre-recession levels, it doesn’t look like anyone’s planning to slow their spending.