Has a tit-for-tat tariff spat between China and the U. S. shifted from a skirmish to a full-blown trade-war?
Has a tit-for-tat tariff spat between China and the U. S. shifted from a skirmish to a full-blown trade war?
That is certainly how financial markets have been trading on Friday after President Donald Trump earlier in the day announced tariffs on $50 billion worth of Chinese imports and Beijing’s Commerce Ministry said it would immediately launch tariffs on U. S. goods in “ equal scale and equal strength .”
“Now, we are in an official trade war with China,” said Peter Boockvar, chief investment officer at wealth manager Bleakley Financial Group. Boockvar described the tariffs as a “buzzkill” for the markets after a string of upbeat economic reports that ought to provide support to prices rising.
Indeed, the Empire State manufacturing survey for May rose to the highest reading since October, while University of Michigan’s gauge of consumer sentiment rose to 99.3 in June, underscoring growing confidence in the economy with the unemployment rate at an 18-year low.
Boockvar said tariffs were “a confluence of headwinds to offset the tailwinds of an economy that’s good.
