Donald Trump had the stage to lay out the path towards this “phase one” agreement between the US and China that has so dominated market sentiment in recent weeks. Instead of talking about when a signing event could take place, where and over what, he used yesterday’s speech as an opportunity to make a thinly veiled critique suggesting that China were “cheaters” in world trade. Although negotiators are close to an agreement, this was not the risk positive speech the market had been expecting and is a bit of a reality check which reminds the market of how the President operates (in case it had forgotten). It has also ... (full story)