US and China draw closer to final trade agreement

Financial Times/James Politi and Lucy Hornby

“We’re getting into the end-game stage,” said Myron Brilliant, executive vice-president for international affairs at the US Chamber of Commerce. “Ninety per cent of the deal is done, but the last 10 per cent is the hardest part, it’s the trickiest part and it will require trade-offs on both sides,” he told reporters on Tuesday.”

USAGOLD note:  The good news is that both sides seem to want to finalize a deal as they round the final turn and head into the backstretch, according to this FT report. The bad news is that the final 10% Brilliant references, could be a deal killer. We hesitate to point out that it has been on the table for months. . . . . . .Market strategist Clif Droke has this to say about the potential effect of a trade deal on the price of gold: “. . .[T]here is also a growing sense among some analysts that if a trade deal is soon reached, it would actually benefit gold. This belief is based on the assumption that a trade deal would likely push the U.S. dollar’s value lower, in turn boosting gold’s price due to its inverse correlation to the dollar.”  We would add that a trade deal would likely increase demand for commodities in general – a development that could spill over to the gold and silver markets.

Repost from 4-3-2019 (Hard to believe that this where we were roughly a month and a half ago.)