Are Americans’ Finances Better or Worse Under Trump?

Relief for Canada's Prime Minister as the province of Alberta votes against pursuing independence, plus Japan looks to carve out a role for itself in lucrative commercial space market and brace yourself for the priciest holiday travel season in the years. The average domestic round trip ticket over the Thanksgiving travel period is 31% more expensive than last year so far. It's Tuesday, October 20. I'm Luke Vargas for the Wall Street Journal, and here is the AM edition of What's News, the top headlines and business stories moving your world today. Alberta has voted overwhelmingly to remain in Canada following a historic referendum. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation is projecting that more than three-quarters of voters who cast a ballot, backed, staying in Canada, avoiding a political crisis that Prime Minister Mark Carney had argued the country could ill afford amidst a trade war with the U.S. In a statement this morning, Carney, so the Canada now had the chance to unleash its full potential as a global energy superpower with oil rich Alberta at its core. Journal Canada correspondent Amanda Colletta is in Alberta for us this morning. Amanda, good morning. Take us through how this vote unfolded. Alberta's voted by a pretty convincing margin to remain in Canada after a month's long debate on whether the province should stay in Canada or start the process towards a second finding referendum on separation. In many ways, this is kind of an odd time for a part of Canada to be holding a referendum on whether to take steps towards separation. The vote comes at a pretty delicate time for Canada's national unity, in part because of President Trump, who has levied tariffs on Canadian goods and threatened to make the country the 51st state. So this will be a relief for many in Canada, including Prime Minister Carney, but the result was not unexpected. This is pretty much what polls have predicted. So what does all this mean going forward Amanda, especially for Carney's plans to spur growth in a shift away from the United States? One reason people are sort of breathing a sigh of relief is that there had been some pretty dire warnings about the economic consequences of a vote in favor of holding a second referendum, the Calgary Chamber of Commerce surveyed its members in June, and nearly half of those who responded said that they'd consider relocating to another province if voters picked the second option, and that brought back to mind what happened during Quebec's debates over independence when there was an exodus of corporate head offices from Montreal, which was at the time Canada's financial capital to Toronto, and there had been a whole host of other studies by economists and other academics, which said that Alberta would have to pay huge costs to become an independent country that an employment would rise that GDP would shrink, that it would take on way more debt, and this also would not have been great for Canada, which depends on Alberta's oil and gas revenues. And Amanda, those industries have been pretty central to Carney's pitch to Canada's potential trading partners. No, what does this result mean for them? One thing that a vote for a second referendum would have fomented is uncertainty. And as Alberta and Canada are looking for investors from abroad and investors at home to put money in what Prime Minister Carney has called nation building projects, these are projects that would help get Canada's exports to new markets as part of an effort to diversify Canada's economy away from the United States. There were fears that that uncertainty could lead to a chilling of investment. And now that the debate appears to be somewhat more settled, that is something that could potentially be taken off the table. I've been speaking to General Canada correspondent Amanda Coletta. Amanda, I appreciate you getting up early for us. Thanks so much. Thanks for having me. President Trump is confirming his interest in a proposal pitched to him by Vladimir Putin in which he would meet with the Russian leader and China's Xi Jinping next month. Speaking to reporters, Trump pushed back on criticism from Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelinsky, who'd said the U.S. was on the wrong side of history for engaging with Moscow. Zelinsky said, Zelinsky doesn't know what he's talking about. Zelinsky is a man that should have had this war settled a long time ago. If he would have listened to me, he would have made a much better deal a long time ago. Trump went on to call for Zelinsky to be replaced as Ukraine's top negotiator. Well, a day after President Trump endorsed Benjamin Netanyahu, ahead of Israeli elections next week, Vice President JD Vance is withholding his support for the Prime Minister. In an interview with journalist Mark Halprin, Vance said that his focus was on American candidates and that he didn't want to get involved in the Israeli vote. The Vice President has broken with Trump on his approach to Israel, accusing elements of its government of being behind a campaign to undermine negotiations to end the Iran war, and saying that Israel is no more important than other U.S. allies. And Japan is returning to the red planet three decades after a failed mission to send a probe to Mars. A new craft from Japan's Jackson Space Agency blasted off today with a unique mission. If all goes well, a rover built by the French and German Space Agencies will scout out Mars's mysterious moon Phobos and return samples of its surface to Earth. Our Tokyo bureau chief Jason Douglas has more. The goal is that we will learn more about the moon's formed where they came from. We'll learn more about our own solar system and its origins. Another goal is to showcase Japan's H3 rocket. This is the workhorse rocket of the Japanese Space Program. It's built by Jaxa and by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. And so the hoop is that by showcasing this rocket's capabilities, Japan will become much more of a player in the world of commercial spacefaring. Don't hold your breath for that Phobos touchdown though. It's not likely until late 2028 or early 2029. And turning quickly to markets now, AI jitters are back this morning after shares in South Korean data centers start up at least tumbled as much as 33% in the company's stock market debut. That's depressing tech stocks across Europe, Asia and the US in pre-market trade with core weave falling almost 3%. Adding to the dampened market sentiment, his fresh run-up in oil prices with Brent Crude now topping $110 a barrel amid an increase in attacks on ships in the Persian Gulf. On the other hand, Eurozone, government bonds and US treasuries are taking a breather this morning allowing yields on their hard-hit French peers to ease. Coming up, we'll look at what the past two years have done to the average American wallet and survey what's likely to be a pricey holiday travel season that's after the break. We are just two weeks away from the midterms and following months of campaigning, it's clear that affordability is the core issue for voters, with the recent Ugove poll showing that most Americans think the economy is in a poor state. Inflation has been ticking higher, pushing up prices for everything from beef to cars, and yet the labor market is stable, and high-flying stocks are boosting Americans' retirement savings. General reporter Terrell Wright has been trying to bring it all together and figure out what President Trump's second term is actually meant for your finances. Just like the economy, grocery prices are kind of a mixed-back. Things like egg prices have gone down by over 50 percent, and bread prices have gone down by about 5 percent, but costs like ground beef have skyrocketed over the past few months. So the average family of fours grocery cost per week has gone up by about $15, and that's according to the US Department of Agriculture. While costs are up, it's not as drastically as some other categories. Mortgage rates have been increasing since the pandemic, but they've ballooned in recent months. We saw the average 30-year fixed mortgage rate hit 7.4 percent this month, the highest level of President Trump's second term, and if you're buying a new home, you're paying drastically more than you did just a few years ago. It's not only that mortgage rates have increased, but the cost associated with owning a home, such as electricity, home insurance, and property tax have gone up in recent months as well. So the average new vehicle has gone up in price by about 4 percent. This has largely hurt by the President's rollout of a 25 percent tariff on imported automobiles and parts last year. Americans are also shouldering bigger debt burdens on the amount that they're borrowing to finance new vehicles. The average amount finance for a new car is up roughly $3,000 from January last year, and that's been driven by higher overall vehicle prices, reduced down payments, and higher interest rates. According to Moody's analytics, the Iran War has also cost the average US household worth $2,000, thanks to pricier gas, the tariff said there's been some relief on the other side of many people's balance sheets. The stock market has been resilient since President Trump will turn to office last year, despite rockiness after the Liberation Day terror announcements and the continuing war in Iran. The S&P 500 has risen 30 percent, including dividends, since the close before inauguration day to Friday's close. And that has boosted average 401(k) and IRA balances. Since President Trump's second term, 401(k) balances have increased by about 18.3%. So the stock market and Americans' retirement savings have really performed well since Trump's re-election, and that is one bright spot for him coming into the midterms. For 12's full story on how Americans' finances have changed over the past two years, check out the link we've left in our show notes. And as we head closer to Thanksgiving in the holiday season, Americans can expect to pay the highest prices in at least a decade on airfare. General reporter Rebecca Cadenhead has been looking into those prices for us and spoke to our Daniel Bach. So according to data compiled by travel booking company Hopper, the average domestic round-trip ticket over the Thanksgiving travel period is 31 percent more expensive than last year so far, and the price of a ticket for Christmas is 23 percent higher. And that increase is really because of the surging price of jet fuel, which is almost twice what it was before the Iran War. So airlines are really in a place where they have to pass along some of the increase in the price of jet fuel to travelers. And industry executives are either clean tickets are actually still a good deal, because the price of airfare hasn't climbed as much as the rate of inflation in recent years. Right now, they also don't see any reason not to increase prices. So for example, the president and chief financial officer for Alaska Airlines said last month he expects consumer demand will be durable. And Delta's chief executive said earlier this month that the top 40 percent of US households, which make up the majority of Delta's customers, are wealthier than they were a few years ago and willing to absorb an increase in fairs. So the airlines may be able to absorb a bit of that cost for now. But what about for Americans and how these price increases impacts their booking? You write that many Americans see travel around the holidays as essential. Yeah, basically, flyers need to plan ahead and be flexible if they can. So they can be deliberate about when they buy their tickets. For example, in previous years, it's been cheapest to book a Thanksgiving flight three to five weeks in advance, according to data from Kayak, a travel search platform. And the data of arrival into departure really matters too. So for example, flyers can save more than $250 on Thanksgiving travel by avoiding return flights on November 29th, the Sunday after Thanksgiving hopper found. And that's it for what's news for this Tuesday morning. Today's show was produced by Daniel Bach and Honey Moir, our supervising producer with Sandra Killhoff and I'm Luke Vargas for the Wall Street Journal. We will be back tonight with a new show. Until then, thanks for listening.