Clock Keeps Ticking On Trade Even After Talks Wrap Up With Optimism

01/10/2019

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JJ Kinahan | Forbes

Trade talks are over for this week, and now it’s clock-watching time as the U.S. and China have just about six-and-a-half more weeks to settle their differences. While the market seems to have a positive tone early on, one note of caution is that there’s still a lot to get done in a short period.

This week’s talks didn’t conclude with any major breakthroughs, but words from both sides make it sound like the discussions were constructive. The fact that an extra day was added might be a sign that negotiators were making some kind of progress. U.S. negotiators told the media that the talks went “just fine,” while China called the talks, “serious.” Probably no one expected anything really significant to come out of these meetings, so just hearing a positive tone appeared to give investors some confidence.

However, the hope is that more progress can be made pretty quickly, because it’s unclear how much longer the market and the economy can handle this big gray area on trade. The extra day was a great sign that the two sides seriously want to get something done, but let’s see if they build on that quickly.

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