Trade Talks Result in Little More Than Mixed Messages

There has been a lot of positive comments coming out of Washington vis-à-vis President Trump this week. According to the president It seems as though negotiations between the United States and China had made substantial headway.

Along with Trump’s statements, Larry Kudlow, Director of the United States Economic Council has also been painting an optimistic picture of the negotiations. “We are making headway in a lot of areas. That includes enforcement, that includes IP (intellectual property) theft, that includes forced technology transfers, ownership, cyberspace, commodities and all the rest of it. Those are of course in the middle of the negotiations that are ongoing, but we’ve come further and farther than ever before.” This according to Reuters.

These comments are in line with Trump’s statements; however they are quite different than statements made by Lighthizer, who is leading the talks and negotiations for the United States. His statements paint a much gloomier picture. As reported by Reuters on Thursday, Lighthizer said there were still some “major, major issues” to resolve. Today the Chinese Delegation returned to China and will continue the talks via video next week.

Wild Gyrations in Both Platinum and Palladium

Both platinum and palladium had wild price variations in trading today. Although both precious white metals closed higher on the day, it was only after making some extreme lows both of these precious metals moved back into positive territory.

Palladium futures for example traded to an intraday low of $1292, before staging a recovery. Palladium futures are currently up just over 1%, a net gain of $13.50, and currently fixed at $1345.80. With a high today of $1357 palladium had over a $64 trading range in a single day.

Platinum is trading only modestly higher currently up $1.50 at $906. However, the trading range today of $23.50 was less then half as large as daily range in palladium.

It was another day of mixed prices in the precious metals’ markets with gold, platinum and Palladium closing higher, and silver closing slightly lower on the day. As of 4:30 PM Eastern standard Time gold futures are currently been at $1295.60, which is a net gain of a $1.30. Silver close slightly lower losing $0.014 and is currently fixed at $15.07.

Wishing you as always, good trading,