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Hi Reader, here's what you need to know for July 18th in 3:02 minutes.

🤓 Earnings season is upon us, which means your ears will probably be ringing with jargon for the next few weeks. So join TradeStation’s David Russell for Your Guide To Earnings Season on Wednesday, and find out how to break company results down into something you can truly understand. Grab your free ticket

Today's big stories

China's economic growth stalled last quarter
Here’s how to do a better job of predicting where the markets will go than the pros have been doing – Read Now
Two more big US banks posted their diverging quarterly results

Small Fry

What’s Going On Here?

Data out on Friday showed that China’s economy posted its second-worst quarterly growth in 30 years.

What Does This Mean?

We’ve had our whole team of analysts working on this head-scratcher all day, and they’ve come to a startling conclusion: it turns out that shuttering businesses and keeping your population locked in their homes isn’t productive for a country’s economy. No, really: China’s services sector – which accounts for over half its economy – shrank 0.4% last quarter from the same time last year, while its retail sales dropped 4.6%. It’s just a blessing that some Chinese factory workers basically lived on site, since manufacturing output managed to grow 0.7% from last quarter. But hostage-taking only goes so far, and the country’s economy ultimately only grew by 0.4% last quarter – well below the 4.8% of the quarter before.

Why Should I Care?

Zooming in: Be ambitious, but be realistic.
We now know that China’s economy grew 2.5% in the first half of the year, making its government’s full-year target of 5.5% – already a 30-year low – look well out of reach. Its economy would now need to grow by around 8% for it to happen, even as the country stands by a zero-Covid policy that’s currently putting a quarter of its population under some form of restriction. That simply isn’t going to happen, says Goldman Sachs: the investment bank now thinks the country’s economy will grow just 3.3% this year.

The bigger picture: A true underdog story.
China is a huge buyer of everything from oil to corn, so this slowdown doesn’t bode well for a global economy already hit by recession concerns. But China isn’t going down without a fight: economists are expecting its government to introduce hundreds of billions of dollars worth of stimulus to boost growth for the rest of the year (tweet this).

You might also like: What is China’s best-performing hedge fund investing in?

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Analyst Take

How To Forecast The Markets Better Than Wall Street’s Been Doing

Reda Farran, Analyst

Truth is, Wall Street’s market forecasters have a terrible record.

Back in December, JPMorgan predicted that US stocks would gain 5% this year, economists predicted the 10-year US bond yield would stick at 2%, and Goldman Sachs predicted that bitcoin would hit $100,000.

But six months later, US stocks are down 20%, the 10-year yield is at 3%, and bitcoin has more than halved to around $21,000.

So all you need to do a better job than them is to follow five simple steps.

That’s today’s Insight: how to become a superforecasting superstar.

Read or listen to the Insight here

These EV stocks could disrupt the industry

Carmakers the world over are scrambling to make the most of the EV boom.

But with so many big players to choose from, it’s getting harder and harder to choose which EV stocks to back.

That’s where Luke Lango comes in: the top analyst just released his top EV stock picks for this year, and he reckons each and every one has the potential to disrupt the auto industry.

On top of that, Lango believes they could all produce some healthy rewards for their investors in the coming years.

Cut through the engine noise today: discover Luke Lango’s top EV picks for free.

Check Out The Report

See important disclosures here.