U.S. President Donald Trump’s preference to cut one-to-one deals with allies and adversaries has been the hallmark of his self-proclaimed dealmaking magic, but with the China trade truce seemingly teetering on collapse, the fragility of such an approach has been laid bare.
China’s Ministry of Commerce late Wednesday night New York time unveiled broad new export controls of rare earths and other critical materials that are key to U.S. defense and technologies applications. The news sparked shock across those specific groups, but wasn’t met with similar reaction across broader markets.
That is until Trump’s nearly 500-word Truth Social post published around 11 a.m. in New York on Friday threatened a "massive increase” of tariffs on goods from China. The move sent major U.S. indexes into a daylong free-fall.
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