Additionally, the Institute for Supply Management revealed that U.S. factory activity slowed in April compared with earlier in the year, attributing the deceleration in part to uncertainty over U.S. trade policy.
Demand for safe-haven plays like Treasuries also spiked in response to President Donald Trump’s sudden withdrawal from talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. The reversal has shifted the U.S. approach to North Korea to a campaign of military and economic pressure.
“We’ve got political uncertainty in Europe, we’ve got geopolitical concerns the Trump calling off his date with Kim Jong Un,” Ian Lyngen, head of U.S. government bond strategy at BMO Capital Markets, told the WSJ. “The potential for international trade to be hurt by the administration’s tariff tantrums is real.”
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