Site icon Money & Markets, LLC

Closing Bell: Trump Gets His China Trade Deal … Markets Say ‘Meh’

U.S.-China trade war, tariffs Closing Bell

President Donald Trump finally has a trade deal. On Friday, Chinese and U.S. officials announced they had reached phase one of an overall trade deal between the two countries and more in Thursday’s Closing Bell on Money and Markets.

Part of the deal includes canceling Dec. 15 tariffs on $160 billion worth of Chinese imports, rolling back additional U.S. tariffs, increased agricultural purchases and changes to intellectual property and technology issues, according to CNBC.

Trump tweeted Friday that he will keep the 25% tariffs on $250 billion of Chinese imports but roll back duties on $120 billion in goods to 7.5%.

Money and Markets: Closing Bell

S&P 500: 3,168 (no movement)
DOW: 28,134 (+2 points, +0.01%)
NASDAQ: 8,734 (+17 points, +0.2%)
GOLD: $1,475.57 (+12.97, +0.9%*)
BITCOIN: $7,250.42 (+0.1%*)
U.S. 10-YEAR YIELD: 1.82%
*as of 3:55 p.m.

The Big Win

If you read this morning’s Wall Street Wake-Up, you’ll know I told you about Sarepta Therapeutics (Nasdaq: SRPT) under our “Stocks to Watch” for Friday.

Well, I hope you took note because Sarepta shares jumped more than 30% Friday on the news the Food and Drug Administration approved a second treatment for Duchenne muscular dystrophy.

It still hasn’t gotten back to its high of around $156, meaning the stock still has a ton of growth potential.

Another Big Win

You only have to look at Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: APPL) to find a winner in Friday’s trade deal announcement.

By canceling Sunday’s scheduled tariffs on Chinese goods, Apple won’t be charged extra for products like phones and computers it gets from China.

The company is already paying tariffs on products like its Apple Watch and AirPods.

Shares of Apple were up 1.3% just before the closing bell Friday.

Golden Nuggets

The first phase of a U.S.-China trade deal has received a mixed reaction in the gold market, according to the weekly Kitco News survey.

Of those surveyed, 38% of Wall Street analysts remained bullish on gold while 38% were bearish. Twenty-five percent said they were neutral.

Charlie Nedoss, senior market strategist with LaSalle Futures Group told Kitco News he expects gold to build back up as trade issues still remain unresolved, despite a phase one deal being reached.

Cannabis Corner

The Canadian provincial government in Ontario helped lift cannabis stocks on Friday. The government said it would issue about 20 new cannabis store approvals starting in April 2020.

Cannabis companies have struggled to be profitable in Canada since marijuana was legalized in 2018. The main issue has been a shortage of stores to sell products in, leading to more black market cannabis being sold.

“This is certainly better than the status quo,” MKM analyst Bill Kirk told MarketWatch on Friday. “In the fight to take share from the illicit market (which has an ~80% share), access to stores has been a major issue.”

Stock Market Update

The U.S. market had a mixed reaction to the announcement of a phase one trade deal with China. Part of that was due to the scant details provided about the deal — only that Sunday’s scheduled 15% tariff on $160 million in Chinese imports would not happen.

As of 3 p.m., the S&P 500 was up 0.03% while the Dow Jones Industrial Average was around 0.03% up. The Nasdaq was also up about 0.2%.

TODAY’S BIGGEST WINNERS:

(as of 3:15 p.m. EST)

Adobe Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: ADBE) +4.5%

PPL Corp. (NYSE: PPL) +5.8%

American Express Co. (NYSE: AXP) +1.8%

Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: APPL) +1.1%

Intuit Inc. (Nasdaq: INTU) +2.9%

TODAY’S BIGGEST LOSERS:

(as of 3:15 p.m. EST)

Coty Inc. (NYSE: COTY) -4.7%

Advanced Micro Devices (Nasdaq: AMD) -2.7%

Exxon Mobile Corp. (NYSE: XOM) -1.6%

Hanesbrands Inc. (NYSE: HBI) -4.5%

Gilead Sciences Inc. (Nasdaq: GILD) -2.9%


Check back for the most important news and numbers each day after the Closing Bell, only on Money and Markets.