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Wall Street’s actions have rallied and that oil prices jumped Tuesday after the US Treasury Secretary in the United States said that a trade war with China was “unbearable”.
Scott Bessent told investors at a conference organized by JPMorgan that he expected that the two countries would conclude an agreement at some point, according to people familiar with his comments.
The secretary of the Treasury said that the high prices that the United States and China imposed on imports of the other represented what was in fact commercial embargoes and added that the status quo was “unbearable”. Bessent also said that President Donald Trump was not trying to decline China.
Trump slapped a 145% tariff on goods from China, while Beijing responded with reprisal rates that total 125%.
The markets, which opened above after a sale at the previous session, climbed further on the comments of Bessent, which were first reported by Bloomberg.
The first-rate S&P 500 increased by 2.6% in the early afternoon in New York, while the Nasdaq composite, heavy with technology, increased by 3.1%. The two clues fell strongly on the fears that the American president dismissed the president of the federal reserve Jay Powell on Monday.
In the raw materials markets, Brent Crude, the international oil reference index, increased by $ 67.98 per barrel by the hope that the worst aspects of a world trade war could be avoided. Gold, a Safe Haven asset which reached a record of $ 3,500 per ounce Troy earlier Tuesday, fell from $ 3,388.
Earlier in the day, John Paulson, the Millionaire and Somino H Hedesty fund manager, concluded an agreement of $ 1 billion alongside Novagold Resources for an Alaska gold project.
“The general level of uncertainty, both economically and politically, leads to the price of gold,” Paulson told Financial Times.
“I think this trend will continue, that gold will become the alternative reserve currency,” he added. “And it is not only among central banks, but also for individuals, who do not want to face the risk of confiscation, currency controls or devaluation given inflation.”
Although Bessent expressed his optimism that an agreement would be concluded at some point, he warned that there was no diplomatic negotiation between countries to end the trade war.
However, two people familiar with his remarks said that there was no sign that Beijing and Washington were close to finding a solution and that the markets were reading too much in his remarks.
One person said he was not clear if Trump agreed with his secretary to the treasury. The White House and the Treasury did not respond to requests for comments.
Asked about the comments during a White House press briefing, Karoline Leavitt, the press secretary, said Trump thought that the United States “went very well with regard to a potential trade agreement with China.”
But people familiar with the situation in Washington and Beijing stressed that there were no talks between the capital to resolve the dispute. China has clearly told the White House that it considers its approach to prices as a form of intimidation and will not cap.
“Everything is a message to keep the markets together while these negotiations are underway,” said Steven Blitz, US chief economist at TS Lombard. “Bessent says an obvious fact.”
