Predictably, the trade narrative took a turn for the better on Wednesday after aggressive banter from Donald Trump sent global stocks tumbling during the first trading sessions of December.
According to the ubiquitous people familiar with the matter, the US and China are edging closer to a consensus on tariff rollbacks, less than two weeks ahead of a deadline beyond which the Trump administration has promised to hit an additional $160 billion in Chinese goods (the remainder of what the country ships to America) with new levies.
Sources say Trump’s comments in London on Tuesday were “off the cuff” and “shouldn’t be understood to mean the talks were stalling”, Bloomberg reported. US equity futures jumped.
At the lows, S&P futs were more than 2.6% off levels seen just before Trump unleashed a broadside against Brazil and Argentina on Monday morning.
US stocks fell for a third consecutive day on Tuesday after Trump suggested it may be better to wait until after the election for a deal and said he “has no deadline“. Fox subsequently said the December 15 tariffs are still scheduled to go into effect, which the market seemed to treat as “new” news, so to speak.
The officials cited by Bloomberg on Wednesday said they expect some manner of agreement with China prior to the December cutoff and indicated that the Hong Kong situation and the Xinjiang bill (passed on Tuesday evening by the US House) won’t likely undercut the talks.
Speaking of the Xinjiang bill, the incomparable Hua Chunying had a thing or five to say about that. US lawmakers, the viper-tongued foreign ministry spokeswoman declared, are “too ignorant, too shameless and too hypocritical”.
Now Trump feels from the market what Zelensky felt from him, sucks being held hostage.
Has anyone tracked the various news sources and figured which ones seem to be most accurate on these trade news items? I don’t know if that’s possible but . . .
Bloomberg. It’s always Bloomberg when it comes to this stuff because this is their wheelhouse.
What is most perplexing in this instance was the fact that it (Trumps actions) were totally predictable and H…. as well as other went out on a limb to state it so…
Making an assumption that not most of the rest of market participants are stupid…..yet the market reacts as it did also predictably…. In addition to all that , we are in a wash , rinse , repeat cycle leading to some token action that will not be terribly consequential….Can anyone add the missing thought or is some wizard just trading this ….predictable unpredictability …..??