Tag Archives: US China

Our central scenario has long been that we would see some lowering of US-China trade tensions ahead of the US presidential elections. But deep-seated issues may prevent a major breakthrough.President Trump is considering offering a ‘limited’ or ‘interim’ trade agreement to China as his advisors prepare the ground for face-to-face talks scheduled for October. He has notably announced that the additional 5% tariffs on Chinese goods scheduled for early October were being pushed back to the...

We now see two additional Fed rate cuts, one in September and one in in October, versus our previous call of only one in September.We continue to expect the Federal Reserve (Fed) to cut rates by 25 basis points on 18 September.Instead of staying put at its 30 October meeting, we now think the Fed will use it to announce a further 25 bps cut, mostly due to the recent escalation of US-China trade tensions.Those two additional cuts still fit within the Fed’s vaguely-defined ‘insurance’...

We believe prices will remain volatile in the short term, before a possible oil glut becomes an issue toward year’s end.The increase in prices that followed President Trump’s 22 April decision to end waivers on Iranian oil imports did not last, with Brent prices falling from almost USD75 on 24 April to below USD70. Nonetheless, we continue to see heightened risk of oil price spikes above USD80 for Brent in the short-term.Trump’s recent threat to increase US tariffs on Chinese imports could...