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Investing.com -- Donald Trump says he may not do a deal with China until after the election next year, and his bad mood with France's Emmanuel Macron hasn't improved any either. He called the French President "insulting" and "disrespectful" ahead of today's NATO summit. Stocks fell and havens rose on the news. Elsewhere, Salesforce and Workday will report earnings, and the upcoming OPEC+ meeting give today's private-sector report on U.S. oil supplies added meaning. Here's what you need to know in financial markets on Tuesday, 3rd December.
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1 Trump dangles trade deal delay
President Donald Trump raised the prospect of delaying a trade deal with China until after the 2020 election, rattling markets that have been happy to push ever higher on promises that a deal was just around the corner.
“In some ways, I like the idea of waiting until after the election for the China deal," Trump told reporters in London ahead of a summit of leaders from the NATO alliance. He added that China "want to make a deal now and we will see whether or not the deal is going to be right.”
Trump’s comments come less than two weeks before the next round of tariffs on Chinese imports is due to kick in. The new tariffs would affect a broad range of products, making it harder to cushion the impact of the policy on U.S. consumers. They also come one day after Trump announced new tariffs against steel and aluminum imports from Brazil and crisis-ridden Argentina, whom he accused of currency manipulation.
2. France to retaliate against Trump’s retaliation
The French government said it would retaliate against President Trump’s decision to impose tariffs of up to 100% on $2.4 billion of French goods, a measure that Trump styled on Monday as retaliation against France’s initiative to introduce a tax on digital services that affects mainly U.S. giants such as Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) and Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN).
The U.S. Trade Representative’s office had also warned that other countries with digital taxes could also be in line for sanctions. They include Italy, Austria and Turkey, while the U.K. aims to introduce one from next year.
Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said in a radio interview that the tariff plans are “unacceptable” and not worthy of an ally. On the subject of alliances – Trump said ahead of the NATO summit that French President Emmanuel Macron had been “disrespectful” in calling the alliance ‘brain-dead’ in a recent interview.
3. Stocks set to open lower
U.S. stock markets are set to extend Monday’s losses after heavy falls in Asia overnight which spilled over into European markets on Tuesday morning as Trump raised the possibility of not proceeding with the oft-promised ‘phase-1’ trade deal with China.