The Dow is down more than 750 points while the broader market fell 3 percent.
Doubts about President Donald Trump’s temporary cease-fire in a trade war with China caused stocks to plummet on Tuesday, as senior administration officials acknowledged it was too early to say if a longer-term deal could be reached.
“The market is trying to figure out is there going to be a real deal at the end of 90 days or not,“ Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Tuesday during an on-stage interview at the Wall Street Journal’s CEO summit in Washington. “Now, whether we can get that to a real agreement, or at least make a lot of progress, over the 90-day period or not, time will tell.”
Markets initially rallied Monday on news that Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping had agreed over the weekend in Buenos Aires to put the trade war on hold for the next 90 days, while the two sides try to reach a deal on U. S. concerns about Chinese intellectual property theft and forced technology transfers. But there has been confusion about just what China said it would do, as well as skepticism about how many reforms the nation can make in such a short period.
