Wall Street braces for another wild ride

Wall Street looked set to recover Thursday from a severe routing that saw all three major indices hit their lowest levels so far this year after a range of economic indicators fueled fears of an impending recession.

Stocks slumped overnight after China vowed to retaliate for President Donald Trump’s latest round of tariffs, then rallied in premarket trading on Thursday morning after Beijing indicated a willingness to compromise.

China’s Foreign Ministry said Thursday it “hopes the U.S. side will meet China halfway, and implement the consensus reached by the two leaders during their meeting in Osaka.”

Trump reignited tensions between the two sides earlier this month when he said he would impose an additional 10 percent tariff on $300 billion of mainly consumer goods imported from China, starting on Sept. 1. Earlier this week, the White House said it would delay taxing some items until Dec. 15.

A quarterly earnings report from Walmart, which had earlier warned it would be forced to raise prices on a number of products due to the increase in tariffs, beat expectations, giving the stock market an additional boost.

All three major indices plunged Wednesday, losing around 3 percent of their value after the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note fell below the 2-year rate, and data from China and Germany showed continued economic contraction.

Trump blamed the Federal Reserve for the market dive, branding Fed Chairman Jerome Powell as “clueless” for not easing monetary policy as central banks in other countries have done. With the economy as the central focus of his re-election, Trump has continually berated Powell for not slashing rates, despite the Fed’s quarter-point-percentage cut last month.

source: nbcnews.com