More tariff news….

For awhile now the US and China have been in negotiations , trade talks, on the supply of rare earth minerals…..now there is word of a possible deal….

President Trump on Wednesday said the US and China have struck a deal to ease the trade war between them, reports CNBC. China will supply critical rare earths and magnets “up front,” the president wrote in all-caps post on Truth Social. In return, the US “will provide to China what was agreed to, including Chinese students using our colleges and universities (which has always been good with me!).” Trump said the deal—which was born out of two days of negotiations by economic officials from the respective countries—is still subject to his and President Xi’s final approval. “We are getting a total of 55% tariffs, (and) China is getting 10%,” Trump wrote, adding that the “relationship is excellent” between the two countries.

• London talks: His confirmation came after senior US and Chinese negotiators signaled they had reached the framework of a deal on mineral and tech exports after the talks in London, per the AP. The outlet adds, however, that it was “not clear whether any progress was made on the more fundamental differences over China’s sizeable trade surplus with the United States.” Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick put it this way after the talks on Tuesday: “First we had to get sort of the negativity out and now we can go forward.”
• Context: The new deal essentially gets the US and China back to where they were in early May after an agreement was struck in Switzerland, per the New York Times. The Swiss deal subsequently fell apart as China held back shipments of rare earth minerals and magnets.

Now how did Donny’s ‘yo-yo economics’ play with the markets?

Not as well as Donny may have wanted.

Wall Street’s rally stalled Wednesday after stocks climbed back within 2% of their all-time high.

• The S&P 500 fell 16.57 points, or 0.3%, to 6,022.24, marking its first drop in four days.
• The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.10 points, or less than 0.1%, to 42,865.77.
• The Nasdaq composite fell 99.11 points, or 0.5%, to 19,615.88.

The action was stronger in the bond market, where Treasury yields eased after a report showed inflation ticked up by less last month than economists expected, the AP reports. That raised expectations for the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates later this year. Markets didn’t react much to the conclusion of two days of trade talks between the US and China.

On Wall Street, a 1.9% drop for Apple was the heaviest weight on the market. It’s been listless this week after unveiling several modest upcoming changes to the software that runs its devices. Chewy dropped 11% after the seller of pet supplies reported a weaker profit for the latest quarter than analysts had forecast. Tesla swung between gains and losses before finishing with a rise of 0.1% to continue its shaky run. It’s been recovering much of its big losses taken last week after Elon Musk’s relationship with Trump imploded, which in turn raised fears about a loss of business for the electric-vehicle company. Musk on Wednesday backed away from some of his earlier comments and said they went “too far.”

Trump said Wednesday that China will supply rare-earth minerals and magnets to the United States, while his government will allow Chinese students into US universities in a deal that still needs an agreement by him and by China’s leader. Trump also said that “President XI and I are going to work closely together to open up China to American Trade. This would be a great WIN for both countries!!!” Investors are still hoping for a more sweeping trade deal that would ease tensions between the world’s two largest economies.

This will do little to help struggling families buy the goods that they need….but not to worry Donny got a ‘deal’ he can brag about.

+++Off I go for yet another round of doctors and stuff….hopefully I will make it home early enough to get back to doing what I do best+++

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”