S&P Futures Spike Above 6,000 After Chinese Media Reports Trump, Xi Held Phone Call

In keeping with China’s now default lying and obfuscation about anything trade war related, just hours after Bloomberg reported that according to the Chinese Foreign Ministry there was no information to share on a US President Trump/Chinese President Xi call, moments ago China’s state media Xinhua reported that the two world leaders had in fact just held a phone call, and engaged in discussions reflecting ongoing diplomatic communication amidst tensions.

Here are all the headlines on BBG and Reuters

• XI, TRUMP HOLD PHONE TALKS: XINHUA

• CHINESE STATE MEDIA REPORTS ON A CALL BETWEEN PRESIDENT TRUMP AND XI JINPING  THE LEADERS ENGAGED IN DISCUSSIONS, REFLECTING ONGOING DIPLOMATIC COMMUNICATION AMIDST TENSIONS

Xinhua also said Xi had been invited by Trump to make the phone call.

The call came after Washington and Beijing traded accusations of breaching a deal reached just weeks ago in Geneva, where the world’s two biggest economies had agreed to dramatically cut mutual tariffs for 90 days, an outcome Trump dubbed a “total reset”.

It was their first phone call since the two countries started imposing fresh duties on each other’s goods in February.
The conversation has been widely seen on both sides as the highest political endorsement for de-escalating the trade war, which threatened to reshape global trade flows for the coming decades.

Tensions between the world’s two biggest economies have flared again in recent weeks.

The Trump administration had claimed that China had been slow to ease exports of rare earth elements, which are essential for a broad range of consumer and military technology that China holds a strategic grip over.

Trump said last week that Beijing had “totally violated” the Geneva agreement, while China responded by criticising Washington for implementing “discriminatory restrictions”.

The US issued guidance warning companies not to use Huawei’s Ascend artificial intelligence chips anywhere in the world last month, just one day after the conclusion of the Geneva deal.

Washington has since reportedly ordered several leading semiconductor design software companies to halt the sale of chip design software to China.

The US announced last week that it would “aggressively” revoke visas for Chinese students, a move poised to impact one of the largest international student demographics in the country.

Before the pause in Geneva, tit-for-tat levies saw US tariffs on Chinese imports rise as high as 145 per cent, with China retaliating with tariffs of up to 125 per cent on US goods.

And while we now await Trump to comment on his Truth Social account what all that was about, futures aren’t waiting and spoos quickly spiked above 6,000, rising as high as 6016 and on the verge of pushing the S&P into a bull market.

Safe haven gold (and bonds) were sold…

But Bitcoin was bid…

Along with oil prices…

Developing…