Markets

Breakdown of the latest developments on the global exchanges
Aug 2, 2019, 12:00 PM GMT
#TradeWar

Donald Trump’s Announces New Tariffs on Chinese Products

The President has once again surprised the market by announcing his foreign policy decisions on Twitter, which has established itself by now as his preferred podium for communicating pivotal presidential orders. In a series of tweets from yesterday, Trump stated that the US is going to impose additional tariffs on Chinese goods from the first of September while the trade talks continue to take place.

He began by saying that despite the ‘constructive’ talks of the US representatives in China, no deal has thus far been reached. Moreover, Trump accused China of deciding to ‘re-negotiate the deal prior to signing' and also argued that it did not abide by its initial promise of buying bigger quantities of agricultural products from the US and finally, he alleged China of its decision to continue selling Fentanyl to the US, which according to him is a prime reason for many deaths.

What is striking about this particular Twitter thread is the uncanny style of expression which Donald Trump uses when he addresses China or President Xi Jinping. Typically, his rhetoric is always solely focused around the notion of “America First”, whereas this time he sounds somewhat more appeasing by calling Xi Jinping his ‘friend’, or when he talks about the ‘bright future’ of the two countries together.

This new style of expression is uncharacteristic of Trump and the market is still attempting to interpret its meaning for the future relationship between the two countries. Meanwhile, following the announcement for the forthcoming introduction of a ‘small additional Tariff of 10% on the remaining 300 Billion Dollars of goods and products coming from China’, the American stock market registered its biggest two consecutive day decrease in months.

The S&P tumbled with 1.09 per cent in yesterday’s trading session and is currently running a loss of an additional 0.90 per cent. Presently the index is trading at 2953.6, which is also a major level of support that used to be a significant resistance before it was broken on the first of July.