US/China trade truce cheers markets up – The Wall Street Journal
DUBLIN –The US won't be slamming Chinese goods with a 25% tariff. Or, at least, it won't be doing that until March, instead of January. That's the great news that send markets soaring on Monday – the news that the US and China have declared a temporary truce in their escalating trade war and that they are committed to holding talks in the next few months. It isn't much, but it was enough to send many emerging market currencies and stock markets shooting upward. That's good news of course. But there's a long way to go before a signed trade agreement between the two countries. Both Trump and Xi have a narrow margin for negotiation, given how much of their brand is based on appearing tough on the world stage, so genuine concessions are likely to be hard-won. Both leaders also face tough political tests in the early part of this year – Trump will have to learn to govern without a Republican-controlled Congress and Xi will be approaching China's annual legislative session in March. The two nations remain very far apart in terms of what they want from a deal. So, while the truce is good news, the story of the US/China trade war is far from over. – Felicity Duncan
By Georgi Kantchev, Akane Otani and Mike Bird
(The Wall Street Journal) Stocks, oil and emerging market currencies rose Monday as the U.S. and China's trade detente spurred optimism that tensions between the two countries would ease heading into the new year.
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