CHINA/ECONOMY/TRADE WAR/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “Doubts about President Donald Trump’s temporary cease-fire in a trade war with China helped spark a plunge in stocks on Tuesday [12-4-18], as senior administration officials acknowledged it was too early to say if a longer-term deal could be reached..Markets initially rallied Monday [12-3-18] on news that Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping had agreed over the weekend in Buenos Aires to put the trade war on hold for the next 90 days, while the two sides try to reach a deal on U.S. concerns about Chinese intellectual property theft and forced technology transfers. But there has been confusion about just what China said it would do, as well as skepticism about how many reforms the nation can make in such a short period. The Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged 800 points, or 3.1 percent, by the close of trading and the broader Standard & Poor’s 500 index fell nearly 3.25 percent for its biggest single-day drop in about two months. Worries about economic growth were also weighing on investors.”
–Doug Palmer and Katy O’Donnell, “Markets drop as doubts grow over Trump’s China deal,” Politico, December 4, 2018 4:02 pm