Awaiting US-China Trade Talks

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Pia Singh and Brian Evans report Dow drops more than 100 points Friday as investors await U.S.-China trade talks:

The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped on Friday as investors awaited much-anticipated trade talks between U.S. and Chinese officials this weekend.

The 30-stock Dow lost 119.07 points, or 0.29%, and settled at 41,249.38. The S&P 500 inched down 0.07%, closing at 5,659.91. The Nasdaq Composite ended the session little changed, ending at 17,928.92.

The talks with Chinese officials follow the U.S. and United Kingdom reaching a preliminary trade deal. Investors hope this will lead to more agreements being reached quickly. That said, a 10% tariff rate on the U.K. appears to be the baseline for the globe.

“Many Trade Deals in the hopper, all good (GREAT!) ones!,” said Trump on Truth Social, a day after announcing a preliminary trade agreement with the U.K., which marked the first deal between the U.S. and a global trading partner since Trump’s “reciprocal” tariff announcement in early April.

The president also wrote on Truth Social that an “80% Tariff on China seems right” ahead of talks led by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent with China counterparts in Switzerland this weekend.

While this is a de-escalation somewhat from the current 145% tariff on China, it’s still higher than many expected where the administration would go to jumpstart talks. Bloomberg News had reported earlier that the rate could be lowered below 60% as soon as this week. It was also unclear if the president is talking about a long-term tariff rate on China or a temporary one during negotiations.

“Progress this week was encouraging, but we remain in the ebbs and flows of the news cycle, which is causing market reactions. We are likely in a sideways period of volatility until we begin to get tangible (calculable) outcomes,” said Mark Hackett, chief market strategist at Nationwide.

On the week, the S&P 500 slid about 0.5%, while the Nasdaq dropped roughly 0.3%. The Dow fell almost 0.2% in the period.

I was a somewhat quiet week on markets, there was a Fed meeting (nothing new), there were some big moves like in Alphabet (Google) shares which got hit hard as search warnings blare but not a whole lot going on at the index level.

Here are some of the X posts that caught my attention this week:

And here are this week's top performing and worst performing US large cap stocks (data from Barchart.com):


Alright not much to add here, want to go watch the rest of the Toronto Maple Leafs game.

Below, Invesco’s Brian Levitt, Wells Fargo’s Scott Wren and American Century’s Mike Rode, join 'Closing Bell' to discuss U.S.-China trade talks, the market rally and their market outlooks.

Next, Meghan Shue, Wilmington Trust, joins 'Closing Bell' to discuss her market playbook.

Third, Michelle Ross, StemPoint Capital CIO, joins 'Closing Bell' to discuss health care's weak week and how to navigate pharma volatility.

Fourth, David Lefkowitz, UBS Global Wealth Management, joins 'Closing Bell Overtime' to explain why he is still bullish on equities.

Fifth, Sam Stovall, CFRA Research chief investment strategist, and Charlie Bobrinskoy, Ariel Investments vice chairman, joins 'Closing Bell Overtime' to talk the day's market action.

Lastly, in an exclusive interview with FOX 11, Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase, criticized President Trump's approach to tariffs, describing them as "too large, too big, and too aggressive." Dimon shared his views on the impact of these tariffs on the economy and the importance of making progress in trade negotiations.

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