Yeah, it figures. The Chinese were definitely hoping to get on our good side by greenlighting the NXP (NXPI) -Qualcomm (QCOM) deal and helping to get North Korea to the peace table.
But it is not going to be enough to forestall tariffs because President Trump wants a firm commitment for the Chinese to do three things: 1. Get the deficit to a level that's more natural, meaning that doesn't allow for dumping, 2. Scrap the joint venture albatross, and 3. Stop interfering with and stealing our technology.
These are not going to be negotiable. There is just going to be an endless ratcheting up of the stakes because the president knows that we are being beaten in trade by the Chinese and the president doesn't like to lose.
What's odd is that those of us who follow trade knew that these tariffs were going to come into play today. If you did an ounce of homework and spoke to anyone in the administration you knew this was going to happen.
But even if you did NO homework you knew it was going to happen at 1:30 pm yesterday when the media got the story. Yet, the averages barely took a hit.
Still, yesterday was an unsettling day unless you were in telecom, media and tech. Nothing looked good. Today we don't have another Comcast (CMCSA) bid so we are seeing what it looks like for the rest of the market with no countervailing power.
It looks ugly.
Long day ahead. But remember, this is not a shocker. The only shocker is that NXPI might be done.
That's actually better than we were at 1:30 pm so don't get too down.
A known known that's bad is a lot less dangerous than an unknown known, and that's exactly what we have on our hands.
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