U.S. President Donald Trump meets China’s President Xi Jinping at the start of their bilateral meeting at the G20 summit in Osaka, Japan, on June 29, 2019.
Kevin Lemarque | Reuters
BEIJING — China is emphasizing its willingness to negotiate as increased tariffs on exports to the United States may soon become a reality.
China’s Ministry of Commerce has always maintained communication with “relevant” U.S. authorities on economy and trade, ministry spokesperson He Yadong said in response on Thursday.
“The Chinese side hopes that under the strategic guidance of the two heads of state, both sides will … strengthen dialogue and communication, properly manage differences, expand mutually beneficial cooperation and promote the stable and healthy development of China-U.S. economic and trade relations,” He added during a weekly press conference. That’s according to a CNBC translation of his Mandarin-language remarks.
Trump said last week that he spoke with Chinese President Xi Jinping over the phone about TikTok and trade. The Chinese side’s readout did not mention the social media app, but said Xi called for cooperation and cast the two countries’ economic ties as mutually beneficial.
“Tariffs are not conducive to China or the U.S., or the entire world,” commerce spokesperson He said.
“China is willing to work with the U.S. to push bilateral economic and trade relations in a stable, healthy and sustainable direction,” He said, noting that was on the basis of “mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation.”
The comments echoed those of China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning on Tuesday.
“We stand ready to maintain communication with the U.S., properly handle differences, expand mutually beneficial cooperation and pursue a steady, sound and sustainable development of China-U.S. relationship,” Mao said when asked about negotiations over tariffs.
“China will also firmly defend its own interests,” she said. That’s according to an official English-language transcript.
Even if 10% tariffs are imposed on China, that’s far lower than the original 60% that Trump had floated during his campaign.
Hours after his inauguration on Monday, Trump reiterated plans for 25% tariffs on Mexico and Canada, without specifying a figure for China. He said only that increased duties might be used to force Beijing-based ByteDance to sell social media app TikTok, whose future availability in the U.S. is now in question.
When asked about TikTok on Thursday, Chinese commerce spokesperson He said China “hopes the U.S. side will listen more to the voices of businesses and the public,” and “do more things that are conducive to economic and trade cooperation between China and the United States and the well-being of the people.”
President Donald Trump on Thursday accused the CEOs of the two largest American banks of refusing to serve conservatives, reviving a 2024 campaign talking point that the two companies deny.
Speaking via video to an assembly held at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Trump lashed out at Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan and JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon as part of a question-and-answer session.
“I hope you start opening your bank to conservatives, because many conservatives complain that the banks are not allowing them to do business within the bank, and that included a place called Bank of America,” Trump said.
“You and Jamie and everybody, I hope you’re going to open your banks to conservatives, because what you’re doing is wrong,” Trump said.
Moynihan, who was among a few executives selected to ask the president questions during the Q&A, didn’t immediately respond to the accusation.
Both banks deny refusing service to conservatives.
“We serve more than 70 million clients, we welcome conservatives and have no political litmus test,” a Bank of America official said in an email.
“We have never and would never close an account for political reasons, full stop,” a JPMorgan spokeswoman said in a statement. “We follow the law and guidance from our regulators and have long said there are problems with the current framework Washington must address.”
In the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, caused in part by shoddy lending standards at major banks, U.S. regulators increased pressure on lenders to purge clients in industries considered higher risk for money laundering or fraud. That meant that payday lenders, pawn ships, firearms dealers, and those involved in pornography had their accounts revoked, often with little notice or explanation as to why.
As recently as October, Trump singled out Bank of America, repeating claims that it discriminates against conservatives.
The accusations may have roots in allegations from state attorneys general last year. In April, Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach sent a letter to Moynihan, accusing the bank of canceling the accounts of “multiple religious groups with mainstream views in the last three years.”
In a May letter in response to Kobach, Bank of America said accounts are de-banked for reasons including a change of stated purpose of the account, the expected level or type of activity on the account, or failure to verify certain documentation required by law.
One account highlighted by Kobach was de-banked because it engaged in debt collection services, which was inconsistent with the Bank of America division that was servicing the account, according to the bank’s response.
“We would like to provide clarity around a very straightforward matter: Religious beliefs or political view-based beliefs are never a factor in any decisions related to our client’s accounts,” the bank said in that letter. “Bank of America provides banking services to non-profit organizations affiliated with faith-based communities throughout the United States. We have banking and investing relationships with approximately 120,000 faith-based clients in the United States.”
Influential people in Trump’s orbit have continued to claim that banks are discriminating based on religion or politics.
In November, Marc Andreessen, co-founder of the venture capital firm that bears his name, told podcaster Joe Rogan that dozens of startup founders had been de-banked in recent years. Andreesen has said he advises Trump on technology matters.
Bank of America shares were up more than 1% on Thursday, with JPMorgan shares higher as well.
The banking industry is seen as one of the biggest beneficiaries of the election of Trump, in large part because of expectations he would kill Biden-era regulatory efforts to force banks to hold tens of billions of dollars in additional capital against losses, make annual stress tests less opaque and drop efforts to cap credit card and overdraft limitations.
Check out the companies making headlines in midday trading. Alcoa — Alcoa’s shares fell about 4% after Chief Executive Officer William Oplinger said on Wednesday that U.S. tariffs on Canadian imports would increase the cost of aluminum by $1.5 billion to $2 billion a year, and that increasing the cost of trade with Canada and Mexico would hurt the domestic supply chain and automotive market. Alcoa is the largest U.S. aluminum producer. American Airlines — Shares dropped 8% after the airline offered a disappointing first-quarter outlook . The company said it expects an adjusted loss of 20 cents to 40 cents per share. Analysts polled by LSEG had anticipated a loss of 4 cents per share. Elevance Health — Shares of the health insurance company rose 1.3% after Elevance beat fourth-quarter expectations. The company posted adjusted earnings of $3.84 a share on revenue of $45 billion, just beating the FactSet consensus call of $3.81 a share on revenue of $44.92 billion. Electronic Arts — Shares tumbled 17% after the video game publisher cut its net bookings guidance for both the third quarter and full year. Electronic Arts cited underperforming games, like its soccer franchise, for the shortfall. Plexus — Shares of the aftermarket electronics product stock slipped 9% after the company gave a disappointing revenue outlook for the second quarter. Plexus expects revenue in the range of $960 million to $1 billion, lower than the $1.02 billion analysts called for, per FactSet. AST SpaceMobile — Shares declined more than 14% after the satellite company announced a $400 million convertible note offering . GE Aerospace — The stock popped nearly 7% after GE Aerospace posted a fourth-quarter earnings and revenue beat. The defense and aerospace company reported adjusted earnings of $1.32 per share, higher than the $1.04 analysts polled by LSEG had expected. GE Aerospace’s $9.88 billion revenue also surpassed the $9.51 billion forecast. Guidewire Software — Shares jumped 9.9% after Goldman Sachs initiated coverage with a buy rating on the company. Guidewire Software, which provides cloud software platforms for property and casualty-focused insurance companies, stands to outperform as cloud adoption grows among insurers, according to Goldman. Union Pacific — Shares of the railway company jumped nearly 5% after Union Pacific posted fourth-quarter earnings that topped Wall Street’s estimates. Earnings came in at $2.91 per share, compared to analysts’ forecast for $2.78 per share, per LSEG. Revenue fell short of expectations, coming in at $6.12 billion in revenue. Analysts called for $6.14 billion. Alaska Air —The airline stock rose more than 4%. In the fourth quarter, Alaska Air posted adjusted earnings of 97 cents per share, topping the 47 cents projected by analysts, per FactSet. — CNBC’s Hakyung Kim, Jesse Pound, Samantha Subin, Lisa Han and Michelle Fox contributed reporting.
Larry Fink at the 2016 World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
David A. Grogan | CNBC
BlackRock CEO Larry Fink said President Donald Trump’s efforts to unleash capital in the private sector could have unintended consequences that would hurt the stock market.
“I’m cautiously optimistic. That being said, I have scenarios where it could be pretty bad,” Fink said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. “I believe if it’ll unlock all this private capital, we’re going to have enormous growth. At the same time, some of this is going to create new inflationary pressures. I do believe that’s probably the risk that is not factored into the markets. I think the bond market is going to tell us where we’re going.”
The 72-year-old chief of the world’s largest asset manager said much will depend on how quickly the private sector can put capital to work. Trump has already touted massive private-sector promises to spend in the U.S., the latest example being the Stargate joint venture, where SoftBank, OpenAI and Oracle would invest $100 billion immediately for artificial intelligence infrastructure in the country. Plans call for the project to eventually invest a total of $500 billion.
“There are some very large inflationary pressures that we all have to be aware of,” Fink said. “And depending on how this plays out, there is a scenario where we’re going to have much more elevated interest rates because of inflation. And that’s going to have a very negative impact on the equity market.”
Fink said there is a possibility that the 10-year Treasury yield could retest the 5% level and even reach 5.5% if inflation re-accelerates in a meaningful way. If that happens, Fink said it would “shock” the equity market.
The benchmark 10-year note yield last traded at 4.62%.