At the end of this week (December 15), the United States is scheduled to impose a new round of tariffs on $156 billion worth of Chinese goods coming into the US. Taking this deadline into consideration, it comes as no surprise that China is pushing for a trade deal to be signed as early as possible.
Last week, China decided to roll back some of its own tariffs against the United States in a good will gesture, hoping that this would inspire trust in the United States and help begin a cycle of canceling some of the already-imposed duties, thus ameliorating the trade war.
Nevertheless, the United States is unlikely to lift any of the tariffs until there are proper legal assurances from China regarding trade and the treatment of foreign intellectual property, which has been a long-standing issue in the two countries’ relationship.
Today we expect a new loans report from China, but we would have to wait until tomorrow for the latest CPI data. The week will be quite packed with economic reports, but today we’re off to a more laid-back start without many important announcements.
Nevertheless, the markets are still feeling the effects of yesterday’s trade data from China, which showed a significant decline in trade. The news hit the commodity markets especially hard, causing oil to drop in price. It reached $64.18 for the Brent crude and $58.90 for the WTI variety.
