NEW YORK/LONDON—MSCI’s global equities index barely rose on Friday and the dollar lost ground as a US trade deal with Britain fueled guarded optimism for US tariff negotiations with China and other countries.
US President Donald Trump pushed back against the idea that the UK deal could be a template for other trade negotiations. Traders await a meeting Saturday in Geneva, Switzerland, between the US Treasury Secretary and chief trade negotiator with China’s economic tsar.
India offered to slash its tariff gap with the US to less than 4 percent from nearly 13 percent now, in exchange for an exemption from “current and potential” tariff hikes, Reuters reported.
Trump said setting 80 percent tariffs on Chinese goods “seems right”. It was his first suggestion of an alternative to the 145 percent levies he has imposed.
Signaling the US is willing to make any cut on tariffs was incrementally positive, according to Matt Stucky, chief portfolio manager for equities at Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management.
“With the Geneva meeting this weekend, there’s a little bit of anxiety and certainly a fair amount of profit taking given the strength we’ve had,” said Michael James, managing director at Rosenblatt Securities, adding that people wary of anything potentially negative coming from the meetings.
