Free Republic

China priced the yuan's reference rate at 6.9683 to the dollar on Tuesday, a hair above the key 7:1 ratio to the US dollar. Although that was the weakest level for the yuan in 11 years, many Wall Street investors feared China would price the yuan below that psychological 7:1 barrier. The managed yuan continued to slide Tuesday, but the pace of its decline slowed. One dollar last bought $7.0200 yuan in China, anld 7.0490 yuan in the offshore market, where the currency trades more freely China devalued its currency on Monday, leading it to fall below a key threshold...

China on Aug. 6 vowed to take countermeasures if the United States follows through on a plan to deploy mid-range ground-launched missiles in Asia. The director of the Chinese foreign ministry’s Arms Control Department, Fu Cong, made the statement after the United States formally withdrew from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty with Russia on Aug. 2 and announced plans to deploy missiles in order to deter China. “China will not stand idly by and be forced to take countermeasures should the U.S. deploy intermediate-range ground-based missiles in this part of the world,” Fu said. Fu also called on South...

Apple Opens a New Window. is reportedly considering moving up to 30 percent of their production from China GoPro The action camera company is moving the bulk of its production out of China to Mexico by mid-2019. It will still continue to manufacture its local products in the country. “Today’s geopolitical business environment requires agility,” GoPro CFO Brian McGee said in December. “We’re proactively addressing tariff concerns.” Hasbro The toymaker is shifting most of its production from China to Mexico, Vietnam and India due to Trump’s tariffs. Steve Madden The footwear and handbag maker, which ships the bulk of its...

All I can say is you better strap yourself in because, the next six months I expect to see tariffs on the other $300 billion we import from China because it's become clear that President Trump has decided that the U.S. simply shouldn't do business with China and if you do you are going to have to pay the price. There's also threats that they will cut off our liquefied natural gas exports to them. Now, here's what's pretty ironic about this list. The vast preponderance of these goods are made by farmers. The farmers, the president said, are going...

* President Donald Trump argued on Tuesday that farmers will ultimately benefit from the expanding trade war with China. * That came even as he floats a second bailout program that would include large-scale government purchases of American agricultural goods. * The program has drawn scrutiny from experts and farmers alike. President Donald Trump argued on Tuesday that farmers will ultimately benefit from the expanding trade war with China, which he added could lead to a second bailout program that would include large-scale government purchases of American agricultural goods. "Our great Patriot Farmers will be one of the biggest beneficiaries...

Slowly but steadily they build up their economic, military, and technological superiority at our expense The Chinese Communist government does not have so much a strategy to translate its economic ascendance into global hegemony as several strategies. All of them are brilliantly insidious.On matters of trade, China is always flexible in responding to critics of its asymmetrical, 30-year mercantilism. In the initial stages of Westernization, China was exempted from criticism over serial copyright and patent infringement, dumping, and espionage. Western elites assumed that these improprieties were just speed bumps on the eventual Chinese freeway to liberalism. Supposedly the richer China...

RUSH: It’s amazing. The Drive-By Media now understands the concept of tax cuts and tax increases, but it took tariffs and a tariff war with the ChiComs for the Drive-Bys to understand it. I’m being ironic and a little sarcastic. They know it and understand it. It’s just that since the Republicans own mantra of tax cuts, since that is a Republican owned belief… Democrats don’t believe in cutting taxes; Republicans do, and the Democrats know it. So whenever the concept of tax cuts comes up, the Democrats and the media have to destroy it, as they did the latest...

Key Points China will raise tariffs on $60 billion in U.S. goods in retaliation for the Trump administration’s latest decision to increase duties on $200 billion worth of Chinese products. U.S. stock indexes fall about 2% as the trade war between the world’s two largest economies escalates. ================================================================ China will raise tariffs on $60 billion in U.S. goods in retaliation for the U.S. decision to hike duties on Chinese goods, the Chinese Finance Ministry said Monday. Beijing will increase tariffs on more than 5,000 products to as high as 25%. Duties on some other goods will increase to 20%. Those...

Wall Street was setting up for a tough start to the week on Monday, with Dow Jones Industrial Average futures down over 300 points as investors waited for countermeasures from China after trade talks with the U.S. appeared to end in a stalemate. How did the benchmark indexes fare? Dow futures YMM9, -1.28% fell 311 points, or 1.2%, to 25,653, while S&P 500 futures ES, +1.86% dropped 36.40 points, or 1.2%, to 2,850.50. Nasdaq-100 futures NQM9, -1.76% slid 127.75 points, or 1.7%, to 7,482.50. On Friday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, +0.44% rose 114.01 points, or 0.4%, to end...

BEIJING — Chinese exporters of all sorts of products, from power adapters and computers to vacuum cleaners, are anxiously hoping trade talks in Washington this week will yield a deal that might stave off higher U.S. tariffs on imports from China. Companies across China are bracing for a tariff hike on Friday after President Donald Trump, complaining Beijing was backtracking and the talks on a festering trade dispute were taking too long, said he would raise import duties on $200 billion of Chinese goods to 25% from 10%. Amber Chen, sales manager for a vacuum cleaner manufacturer based in southern...

Stocks fell sharply on Monday, giving back the gains from a strong turnaround in the previous session, after China decided to raise tariffs on some U.S. goods as the ongoing trade war between the worldÂ’s largest economies intensifies. The Dow Jones Industrial Average traded down 490 points, while a 2.8% drop in the tech sector pushed the S&P 500 down by 1.9%. The Nasdaq Composite dropped 2.6%. China will hike tariffs on $60 billion worth of U.S. imports, starting on June 1. The goods targeted include a broad range of agricultural products. This comes after President Donald Trump raised tariffs...

President Donald Trump accused China on Wednesday of pulling back from agreed-upon trade deal language because Beijing would rather negotiate with former Vice President Joe Biden "or one of the very weak Democrats" hoping to win the White House. Trump launched his attack in a pair of tweets that moved equities markets. "The reason for the China pullback & attempted renegotiation of the Trade Deal is the sincere HOPE that they will be able to 'negotiate' with Joe Biden or one of the very weak Democrats, and thereby continue to ripoff the United States (($500 Billion a year)) for years...

The Chinese trade delegation arrived at the 0ffices of the U.S. Trade Representative at 5 P.M. to begin trade talks just hours before U.S. tariffs on imports from China are set to rise to 25 percent. Update 8:17 P.M.: There are after hours rumors on Wall Street that President Donald Trump will call Xi Jinping at 10 P.M. EST, 10 A.M. Beijing time. Stock futures are moving higher on the speculation that China might win a last-minute reprieve from the tariffs. Update 7:45 P.M.: There are reports that the meeting has already concluded, despite expectations that it would last late...

China appealed to the United States to meet it halfway to salvage a deal that could end their trade war, with its chief negotiator in Washington for two days of talks hoping to stave off U.S. tariff hikes set to be triggered on Friday. The two sides had appeared to be converging on a deal until last weekend, when U.S. President Donald Trump announced his intention to raise tariffs with his negotiators saying that China was backtracking on earlier commitments. “The U.S. side has given many labels recently, ‘backtracking’, ‘betraying’ etc...China sets great store on trustworthiness and keeps its promises,...

President Trump shocked markets yesterday when he announced that a new, heavy round of tariffs on Chinese goods will take effect this Friday. Complacent markets had assumed that a trade deal would get done, that it was just a matter of sorting out the details. Now that is far from certain. Failing a last minute deal, which is certainly possible, the trade war is back. And it could get worse.What most surprised me about the new trade war was not that it started, but that the mainstream financial media denied it was happening for so long. The media have consistently...

The endgame in the trade war between China and the United States seems near. President Trump, betting with real currency — American strength — apparently has the upper hand, and the concessions President Xi Jinping is likely to make won’t be mere tokens. When — if? — an agreement is finally announced, Mr. Trump will surely fire off bragging tweets, partly to shore up his credentials for a second term, amid personal and policy troubles. For Mr. Xi, almost any deal could mean a very serious loss of face. Mr. Xi assumed power when China was still riding high on...

The Trump Administration’s Department of Homeland Security has forced China’s state-owned Costco to sell the Port of Long Beach over security concerns. China’s Costco Shipping Holdings, which bought out its 75 percent-owned Hong Kong-based Orient Overseas International (OOCL), was forced to sell its Port of Long Beach Container Terminal ownership to Macquarie Infrastructure Partners for $1.78 billion. The Obama administration had no problems with OOCL signing a 40-year lease with the City of Long Beach in 2012 for control of America’s second largest and most automated container handling operation. The sweetheart deal was part of the “Middle Harbor Redevelopment Program"...

U.S. stocks declined Monday amid heightened anxiety over the U.S.-China trade spat, raising investors’ concerns that the conflict could dent economic growth. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 186 points, or 0.7%, to 26322, easing off of session lows after falling more than 450 points in early trading. The S&P 500 shed 0.7% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite dropped 0.9%. Ten of the 11 S&P 500 sectors dropped, led by declines in industrials, materials technology-—three areas with heavy exposure to China. Nearly all of the 30 stocks that make up the Dow industrials also fell. Stock markets in Asia and...

A sharp sell-off will start the week on Wall Street after President Donald Trump said on Sunday that the U.S. will hike tariffs on goods imported from China, casting doubt on recent optimism that the world’s two largest economies were close to a resolution to their trade battle. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures lost 400 points after falling as much as 479 points earlier Sunday evening. S&P 500 futures dropped 1.3% shortly after their open Sunday evening, while Nasdaq-100 Index futures dropped 1.5%. Trump said in a tweet Sunday afternoon that the current 10% levies on $200 billion worth of...

Washington veteran Michael Pillsbury has quietly become a key figure behind Trump's confrontational China policy, to the dismay of Beijing — and some fellow China experts. -- A day before President Donald Trump departed for the G-20 summit in Buenos Aires, several top officials gathered in the Oval Office to strategize about Trump's highly anticipated meeting there with China's president. Seated around Trump's Resolute Desk were Vice President Mike Pence, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer. On couches a few feet away were White House chief of staff John Kelly, Trump's son...