Trump Says First Phase of China Deal is Close
November 13, 2019
President Trumps spoke to the Economic Club of New York yesterday and said that the phase 1 deal with China could happen soon and was close but gave no other specific details. He did however threaten to substantially raise US tariffs on China if a trade deal was not reached. He said that he would only sing a deal that was good for his country and US workers. President Trump also criticized the Federal Reserve’s raising and then cutting interest rated saying the central bank had put the US at a competitive disadvantage with other countries and called for negative interest rates.
There are still a lot of unknowns on the trade deal and the market is trading slightly lower to start today as there is no trend in these markets just rangebound congestion.
Saudi Arabia’s cabinet on Tuesday claimed Iran was being “deceptive and evasive” about its nuclear program and it accused Iran of delaying giving information to the International Atomic Energy Agency and its inspectors.
Several groups pressed for action on tax credits yesterday as efforts to revive and extend important waivers for biodiesel, rail and other industries appeared to stall. The National Biodiesel Board (NBB) warned that “dozens” of facilities could shut in coming months as the expiration of a blenders tax credit (BTC) threatens to enter its third year.
The IEA published a report stating that global oil demand is expected to slow down leading up to 2025 and stagnate into 2030. That stagnation in 2030 maybe peak demand for energy according to their outlook. The IEA says that the use of more efficient cars and electric vehicles will help to end the expansion in oil demand. All of this must be taken with a grain of salt as these outlooks must be done but are only estimations by these group of what could happen. There are a lot of moving pieces to all these scenarios which make it very difficult to predict. As an example, back in 2006 the IEA said crude oil production had peaked. In 2013 they said it was probable that peak oil was here before 2020. But then along came the shale oil revolution which changed all that to the point where we could now have too much oil and gas.