Midway through Thursday's trading session, the equity markets gave up their early morning gains as the trade war and a possible increase in tariffs against China by the Trump administration once more raised its ugly head. Hopefully, if you've been reading CD Media's market section, this was not a surprise. We have long been saying China cannot, and will not, make a good trade deal for the American people.
Described by US President Donald Trump as “the leading authority on China”, Michael Pillsbury said in an interview in Hong Kong on Thursday that Trump had been “remarkably restrained in the pressure he has brought to bear on China in the trade field," reported the South China Morning Post.
.“Does the president have options to escalate the trade war? Yes, the tariffs can be raised higher. These are low level tariffs that could go to 50 per cent or 100 per cent,” he said, adding that Trump’s critics were wrong to assume the president was “just bluffing” when he threatened an all-out trade war.
“There are other options involving the financial markets, Wall Street, you know, the president has a whole range of options,” he said.
Economic news released today was positive for the Trump economy.
The Philadelphia Fed Manufacturing Survey came in at 12 vs 11 consensus estimate, a positive reading.
Initial jobless claims for the week were reported at 208k vs 213k consensus.
Continuing jobless claims were 1.661M for the week vs 1.672 consensus.
Existing home sales MoM for August were up 1.3% vs an estimate of down 0.4%.
Existing home sales MoM for August were 5.49M vs an estimate of 5.37M.
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