The U.S. and China began a pivotal round of trade negotiations with hours to go before the Trump administration ratchets up tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese imports, to 25% from 10%. Beijing has vowed to retaliate should Trump follow through with his threat, but simply responding with its own tit-for-tat tariffs isn’t China’s most likely move, said Brad Setser, a senior fellow for international economics at the Council on Foreign Relations.
U.S. contracts ticked lower. Earlier, the S&P 500 Index closed lower but losses were pared after Trump’s “beautiful letter” comments. Sentiment remains fragile and the gap between 3-month and 10-year Treasury yields briefly turned negative, traditionally a recession warning.The FCC blocked China Mobile from providing phone services in the U.S., citing national security concerns and said it was opening a review of other Chinese companies amid friction between the world’s biggest economies.