PAGE
7
FEWER REFUNDS
TA X RETAILERS
YOUR MONE Y
IT’S REFUND SEASON, BUT THIS YEAR Uncle Sam has been doling out less
money than usual. Because of withholding changes stemming from Presi-
dent Trump’s 2017 tax bill, the average refund amount has risen by $
to $3,068. But 2 million fewer refunds have been issued compared with
last year, according to the first five weeks of data available from the IRS.
That’s bad news for retailers of big-ticket items like furniture, electronics,
cars, or home appliances, who have come to expect a glut of disposable
consumer income during tax season. —ROBERT HACKETT
13
FORTUNE.COM // APR.1.
WHEN CHINA
SPEAKS, THE
MARKETS LISTEN
IN MID-FEBRUARY,
President Trump
announced that nego-
tiations in the Middle
Kingdom to resolve the
trade war with China
had gone “very well.”
But some wary trad-
ers couldn’t take the
Commander-in-Chief
at his word. Instead,
they waited until
the Chinese govern-
ment’s mouthpiece,
Xinhua News Agency,
confirmed the news
to give the S&P 500 a
nice 30-point bump.
The reason: Inves-
tors simply don’t
know whom to believe
with mixed mes-
sages coming out
of the White House.
Trump’s optimism
was tempered by U.S.
Trade Representative
Robert Lighthizer,
only to be reinforced
by National Economic
Council director Larry
Kudlow. With the
morass of compet-
ing insights, Chinese
state media, of all
things, is now a more
reliable narrator.
—LUCINDA SHEN
TRADE
GADGETS
Foldable Phones
Are Coming
Whether we want them or not. By Aaron Pressman
DEVICES FROM A TRIO of handset mak-
ers had the halls buzzing at the recent
Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Samsung,
Huawei, and TCL all showed off their take on phones
that unfold into larger-screen tablets. Samsung’s Gal-
axy Fold has a typical phone screen on the outside
and opens like a book with a separate 7.3-inch screen
on the inside. But it’s priced at almost $2,000 and
appears to be quite a bit heavier and thicker than
most current phones. Huawei’s seemingly thinner
and more desirable device—called the Mate X—will
start at $2,600.
In a market in which the top-spec iPhone sells
for just shy of $1,500, will customers pony up? CCS
Insight analyst Ben Wood says these foldable phones
remind him of the brick-like Motorola DynaTAC
8000x, toted by Gor-
don Gekko in Wall
Street. It weighed
almost 2 pounds and
cost $4,000—or over
$10,000 in today’s
dollars—when it
debuted in 1983.
“People have short
memories,” Wood
says. “This is cutting-
edge technology, and
that always comes
with a premium price.
There is little doubt
prices will decline
over time.”
Expect the status
conscious to spend big
now but buy better
versions—for less—
down the line.
1983
motorol a dynatac 8000x
$3,
equivalent to
$10,000 today
2000
nokia 3310
$
equivalent to
$260 today
2019
samsung galaxy fold
$2,
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