Fed Officials' Musings on Rates Spur Market Jump
With fear of a self-induced US recession gripping Wall Street, any news is good news these days. So it can't be too surprising that stocks spiked in frenzied trading Thursday after a few Federal Reserve officials publicly mused about possibly cutting interest rates in the near future.
Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland President Beth Hammack told CNBC the central bank could move as early as June if it has clear evidence of the economy's direction. Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller similarly said he'd support rate cuts if President Donald Trump's tariffs start pushing Americans out of work.
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CNBC Sport: Candace Parker talks state of women's basketball, broadcasting and her new book
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Trump hails limited trade agreement with China after talks in London
Advertisement Less than two weeks after accusing China of violating a trade-war truce, Trump on Wednesday had nothing but praise for the Chinese leader. '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!!!' the president wrote in a second Truth Social post. Under the renewed truce, the United States will impose a 55 percent tariff on Chinese goods, and China will hit American products with a 10 percent import tax, the president said. Those are both higher rates than before Trump took office, but lower than the triple-digit tariff levels that each nation imposed this spring. US and Chinese negotiators agreed late Tuesday to try again to implement the trade-war truce that collapsed amid recriminations on both sides just weeks after it was reached during an earlier round of talks in Geneva. Advertisement Speaking near midnight in London, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick announced what he called a 'handshake' deal to put into effect the terms of the May 12 US-China agreement that called for both nations to lower their tariffs and take additional steps to facilitate trade. 'We have reached a framework to implement the Geneva consensus and the call between the two presidents,' Lutnick told reporters, referring to a June 5 telephone conversation between Trump and Xi. 'I think it's really beneficial to the United States of America. It's very beneficial to the Chinese and the China economy.' Negotiators released no text of either the London framework or the earlier Geneva accord to de-escalate the US-China trade war. But Lutnick said both nations would remove new trade barriers they had erected as the truce broke down. That means China is expected to permit an increased flow of critical materials known as 'rare earths' for auto and defense production. As those shipments increase, the United States will lift measures that it imposed recently 'in a balanced way,' Lutnick said. 'We do absolutely expect that the topic of rare-earth minerals and magnets, with respect to the United States of America, will be resolved in this framework implementation,' Lutnick said. He did not specify which US measures would be lifted in response. But his department has implemented a number of restrictions on exports to China of aerospace technology and advanced semiconductor equipment, which Chinese officials urgently want removed. Lutnick described the diplomatic breakthrough as the first step toward expanding US-China trade, which topped $580 billion last year. The United States buys more than three times as much from China as Chinese customers buy from Americans, a trade deficit that the president has inveighed against for years as a measure of industrial decline. Advertisement 'We have an existing, significant trade deficit, and President Trump's fundamental goal is to reduce the trade deficit and increase trade. So this was the first step of the framework by which we will then approach and discuss growing trade . But first we had to sort of get the negativity out," Lutnick said. Briefing reporters outside Lancaster House, the 19th-century mansion in London's West End that hosted two days of talks, Lutnick credited the involvement of both presidents with producing quick results. 'You have to get things done if you're working for President Trump. I'm sure they felt they had to get it done because they were working for President Xi,' he said. The US delegation also included Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer. Bessent left the talks a few hours early to return to Washington in time to appear before Congress on Wednesday. The Chinese team was led by Vice Premier He Lifeng, a close associate of Xi. 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The Hill
23 minutes ago
- The Hill
Trump touts trade truce with China as White House searches for wins
President Trump announced Wednesday a pending trade truce with China as the White House searches for momentum ahead of a looming deadline to strike dozens of other similar deals. The president's announcement was light on details but gave Trump and his team the chance to tout a victory during a crucial stretch for his trade agenda. Trump said the deal with China, struck following negotiations in London between his top economic officials and their Chinese counterparts, set tariff rates on U.S. and Chinese imports, allowed Chinese students to attend U.S. colleges and set terms for U.S. imports of Chinese rare earth minerals. The president said the U.S. would maintain tariffs up to 55 percent on Chinese goods as part of the deal, but it was still pending final approval in both nations. It was also unclear whether the agreement reached this week was substantively different from the initial truce the U.S. and China struck in May following discussions in Geneva. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters the U.S. 'agreed to comply with the Geneva agreement,' a reference to the initial terms struck between the Trump administration and Beijing in May to lower tariffs. The president, she said, was reviewing the details of Wednesday's deal. 'But what the president heard, he liked,' Leavitt said. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told CNBC the 55 percent tariff on China is made up of a 20 percent tariff imposed this year over fentanyl concerns, a 10 percent reciprocal tariff applied to all imports and 25 percent tariffs still in place from Trump's first term. Asked if the tariff levels will not change from there, Lutnick responded, 'You can definitely say that.' It was a notable statement given Trump has repeatedly raised and lowered tariffs in the early months of his second term and created carve-outs for certain industries. Treasury Department Secretary Scott Bessent, who has emerged as Trump's top economic negotiator, hailed the deal in testimony before Congress. 'I have just returned in the middle of last night from negotiations in London with a Chinese delegation that will not only stabilize the economic relationship between our two economies, but make it more balanced,' Bessent said. Bessent also criticized Chinese production capacity and encouraged the country to pursue policies oriented to domestic consumption. 'China has a singular opportunity to stabilize its economy by shifting away from excess production towards greater consumption,' he said. Trump's announcement comes as the White House scrambles to strike deals with more than a dozen top U.S. trading partners in the wake of the president's April 2 'Liberation Day' tariff announcement. The president in April imposed more than $600 billion in import taxes on goods from nearly all U.S. trading partners, including tariffs close to 100 percent on Chinese goods. The scale of Trump's tariff plan stunned experts and investors, leading to weeks of financial market turmoil. Trump yielded to the pressure from bond markets and congressional Republicans soon after by reducing his initial tariffs to 10 percent for 90 days, a deadline set to hit July 8. Trump officials had touted plans to strike 90 deals in 90 days but so far have only announced an agreement with the United Kingdom — which was in the works before Trump imposed tariffs — before Wednesday's detente with China. Lutnick told CNBC he was optimistic about striking deals with other trading partners, which he and other top officials have said for months without announcing any agreements. 'Now, we're going to be focused, starting today. We're going to be focused on other deals. We're going to get them done. We're in good shape with lots of countries, but good shape isn't good enough for the United States of America. We want great deals that are fundamental for America. We can get them,' he said. Trump has previously suggested that if there is no agreement between the U.S. and other countries, he and his aides will determine an appropriate tariff rate to impose moving forward. But Bessent suggested in testimony to lawmakers that the July 8 deadline could have some wiggle room for certain countries. 'It is highly likely that for those countries that are negotiating — or trading blocs, in the case of the EU — who are negotiating in good faith, we will roll the date forward to continue the good-faith negotiation,' Bessent said. 'If someone is not negotiating, then we will not.'
