The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 300 points on continued progress between the United States and China in hopes that a permanent trade deal can get done and ease what’s been a new normal of volatility in the markets.
Investors have been hanging on every sliver of news–positive or negative–which has been orchestrating the tenor of the markets since October’s bout of sell-offs.
“This intraday volatility is very headline-driven,” said Mona Mahajan, U.S. investment strategist at AllianzGI. “Between trade, the Federal Reserve and recession fears, it’s reason to give investors pause.”
“Investors are also more willing to sell rallies than buy dips. That’s the sentiment right now,” Mahajan added.
Trade talks appeared to be headed in the right direction after a Wall Street Journal report revealed that China is working to modify its policies to make itself more accessible to foreign markets.
U.S.-China relations also took a turn for the better as U.S. President Donald Trump said he would intervene in the Justice Department’s case against Meng Wanzhou, the CFO of Huawei, one of the world’s largest mobile phone makers, who was arrested in Canada and faces extradition to the U.S. Trump said the intervention would be necessary in order to ensure that U.S.-China trade talks progress and relations between the two economic superpowers aren’t sullied.
The major indexes have been racked by volatility in recent sessions as the reality that a tangible and permanent trade deal is necessary has been settling in with investors. The probability of reaching an agreement didn’t improve after news broke of Wanzhou’s arrest.
Just last week, the capital markets breathed a sigh of relief as President Trump and Chinese president Xi Jinping agreed to cease fire on their tariff-for-tariff battle, giving the markets hope that a year-end rally could ensue.
However, the market boost was short-lived as the truce didn’t quell investor fears as markets fretted on the notion that a trade deal can only materialize after lengthy discussions between the two economic superpowers. Furthermore, contentious topics like forced technology transfer and intellectual property could derail negotiations.
Trump and Jinping met at the G-20 Summit in Buenos Aires, putting global markets on pause as the two economic superpowers met to hopefully ameliorate their trade differences. As part of the agreement, both nations agreed to withhold imposing further tariffs on each other for 90 days while they work out a firm, ironclad deal.
The U.S. agreed to keep the current 10% tariffs on over $200 billion worth of Chinese goods while an agreement is negotiated, but will increase to 25% if no agreement is reached prior to the 90-day deadline.
The S&P 500 gained over 40 points, while the Nasdaq Composite gained just over 2 percent.
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