Uncertainty returns

The global trade war is rumbling on with higher tariffs, and a social media post from President Trump that suggests that negotiations with Beijing are in trouble.

“I like President XI of China, always have, and always will,” Trump wrote on Truth Social early on Wednesday. “But he is VERY TOUGH, AND EXTREMELY HARD TO MAKE A DEAL WITH!!!” (Trump has grown “obsessed” with holding a call with Xi, an unnamed official told Politico.) All of this comes as Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent acknowledged that negotiations had become “a bit stalled.”

The latest: Global markets are edging higher, despite a doubling of U.S. levies on steel and aluminum imports, to 50 percent, that went into effect on Wednesday. Separately, China, which has a lock on rare earth metals, has stepped up export controls of the crucial resources.

Such limits are a huge deal for industrial companies, and could clobber advanced manufacturing in the U.S. American carmakers are desperately seeking workarounds to the export controls — including potentially moving some production to China.

U.S.-China talks appear troubled, even as a senior Trump official suggested that Trump and Xi would speak as soon as this week, according to CNBC. Administration officials have accused Beijing of violating terms of an agreement reached last month in Geneva.

Just today, Beijing rebuked Secretary of State Marco Rubio over his commemoration of the deaths of pro-democracy demonstrators involved in the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989.