Fra Zerohedge:
Not long after the Chinese delegation landed in Washington for the latest round of talks, one of Beijing’s favorite English-language mouthpieces appears to have confirmed that the odds of striking a trade deal before Friday are “zero” – sending stock futures to their lows of the session.
Hu Xijin 胡锡进@HuXijin_GTToday, I asked one from Chinese side who knows the trade talks well, how many possibilities there still are to reach a deal before Friday. His answer is: 0. If it is that bad, the real suspense is whether the two sides will continue negotiations after Friday.
Before the delegation left the airport, Hu tweeted a challenge to the US: Think long and hard about what you want to accomplish this week.
Hu Xijin 胡锡进@HuXijin_GTThe Chinese delegation is at the airport and will take off soon. Some ask why bother to go to the US for talks given what had happened?This is also a question for the US side, why still bother to invite the Chinese delegation? I want to emphasize ‘invitation’.
Though this doesn’t mean a deal won’t be struck in the coming weeks, though Hu’s comments about the ‘real question’ being whether negotiations will continue after Friday appears to have rattled the market, which had presumably assumed that they would.
