Markets finished the holiday-shortened week with a short-covering bounce. There was also buying interest ahead of President Trump’s speech in Iowa with speculation a trade deal with China would be announced. That didn’t happen, but Trump did repeat a trade announcement that was made on Wednesday. “In breaking news, we reached a historic trade agreement with Vietnam to open their market to American exports with zero tariffs and you’re going to be giving them vast amounts of farm products, including beef, pork, dairy and pure Iowa ethanol.” Meanwhile, the Chinese Commerce Ministry is upset with the U.S. trade deal with Vietnam. In the agreement, the U.S. targets China’s practice of transshipments with a 40 percent tariff. With transshipping, cargo is transferred from one ship to another to avoid tariffs by hiding the product’s country of origin. Due to that language, the Chinese Commerce Ministry is threatening to retaliate against the United States.
