22% Of Millennials Say They Have No Friends
2% Of Millennials Say They Have No Friends

A staggering 22% of millennials (aged 23 - 38) surveyed by YouGov say they have no friends, while less than 1/3 say they have at least 10 friends.
Meanwhile 30% of Millennials say they 'always or often feel lonely.'
According to the New York Daily News,

Even if younger Americans are overstating their isolation, the jarring numbers reflect long-term rising trends in loneliness. Studies have indicated that loneliness has myriad negative mental and physical health effects.

“Strong social relationships support mental health, and that ties into better immune function, reduced stress and less cardiovascular activation,” Debra Umberson, a professor of sociology at the University of Texas, told Time magazine in 2015.

Oddly, 25% of Millennials surveyed also said they don't have any acquaintances.

Is social media to blame? As the Daily News points out, "a 2018 study out of the University of Pennsylvania linked usage of apps like Facebook and Instagram to social isolation. “Using less social media than you normally would leads to significant decreases in both depression and loneliness,” the study’s author, psychologist Melissa Hunt, said at the time."

Meanwhile, according to Vox, many 30-somethings have a hard time making new friends as they get older, as their lives become busier and friends move away.

More recently, in a 2016 paper, researchers in Germany found a peak of loneliness in a sample of 16,000 Germans at around age 30, another around age 50, and then increasing again at age 80.

“We don’t quite know why this is happening,” said Maike Luhmann, a psychologist who researches loneliness at Ruhr-Universität Bochum and co-authored the paper. -Vox

Moar:

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-08-05/22-millennials-say-they-have-no-friends

Treasury designates China as a currency manipulator
Treasury designates China as a currency manipulator (Politico)

By DOUG PALMER and BEN WHITE 08/05/2019 09:54 AM EDT Updated 08/05/2019 07:51 PM EDT
The United States took the rare step on Monday of formally labeling China a currency manipulator, as trade relations between the two countries continued to spiral downward after President Donald Trump's decision last week to impose additional tariffs on Chinese goods.

Moar:
https://www.politico.com/story/2019/08/05/trump-blasts-china-yuan-drop-as-currency-manipulation-1634502

==Dow plunges 760 points in worst day of 2019 as trade war intensifies
Dow plunges 760 points in worst day of 2019 as trade war intensifies

Fred Imbert
Published Sun, Aug 4 2019 11:55 PM EDTUpdated 5 hours ago

Stocks fell sharply Monday as a trade war between the world’s largest economies intensified with China retaliating against President Donald Trump’s latest move.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged 767.27 points, or 2.9%, to close at 25,717.74 and dropped as much as 961.63 points at one point. The S&P 500 dropped nearly 3% to 2,844.74. The Nasdaq Composite lagged, falling 3.5% to 7,726.04. It was the worst percentage drop for all three indexes this year. The S&P 500 is now more than 6% below its record hit only last month.

The Nasdaq fell for a sixth straight session, its longest losing streak since late 2016. The S&P 500 also posted a six-day losing streak. The Dow declined for a fifth straight day. The move continues a sell-off that began last week when President Donald Trump ordered new tariffs on the rest of Chinese goods and the Federal Reserve failed to signal it would be as aggressive as the market hoped in backstopping the economic slowdown.

Apple led the decline in stocks that have the most to lose from the new round of tariffs, losing 5.2%. The SPDR S&P Retail ETF (XRT) closed 2.2% lower as the new tariffs will hit items apparel, electronics and toys. Nike dropped 2.7%. Macy’s and Best Buy pulled back 3.1% and 3.5%, respectively.

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/08/05/us-futures-amid-trade-turmoil-between-beijing-and-washington.html