China has acted to soften the US stance in the ongoing trade negotiations by deciding to remove import tariffs on some of the soybean and pork imports from the US. The tariffs of 25% have been in place since July 2018, brought in as a countermeasure to the US tariffs on Chinese imports. The olive branch comes after President Trump suggested that a deal with China may have to be delayed until after the US Presidential election in November 2020.
The news didn’t come a moment too soon for London stocks which have hit a nearly two-month low yesterday. This morning the FTSE rallied by over 0.8% with miners, insurers and retailers leading the way.
Among UK stocks, Associated British Foods, which owns the clothing chain Primark, bounced higher after it said it was maintaining its forecasts for growth for the next financial year.
Oil flat after OPEC decision
Meanwhile in Vienna, an arduous discussion later and the OPEC countries and Russia have agreed to extend the production cuts that are already in place by another 500,000 barrels a day, slightly more than most analysts had anticipated.
Oil’s first reaction was a bounce followed by a slight dip and then a flat line. While it all sounds good on paper it remains to be seen what this means in practice, as Russia has been lagging behind for most of this year in curbing its output except for a short period when tainted oil supplies forced it to stop outflows.
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