SINGAPORE (June 17): US President Donald Trump is not letting up on his threats to hit China with a new set of tariffs as talks between the two economic giants show scant signs of progress. China, on the other hand, did not give a clear indication if President Xi Jinping will meet Trump at the G20 meeting on June 28 and 29 in Osaka, Japan.
Trump added further uncertainties to the trade talks. At a press conference on June 12, he declared that there was no deadline on when the talks should resume, other than “what’s up here”, pointing to his head.
With this deteriorating economic outlook, oil prices and tech stocks dropped, while the US dollar strengthened. “We expect that the longer the trade uncertainty persists, the higher the probability of risk-off sentiments settling into the markets. Trade pessimism continues to be the main source of bearishness in the markets,” writes OCBC economists in a June 13 report.
