Trump’s big reveal on trade a big letdown

But astute market watchers such as Medley Global Macro Managing Director Ben Emons note that Trump’s language toward the talks has become more cautious of late. He’s gone from describing them as "going very well” to saying they are "moving along” to Tuesday’s "could happen soon.”

MARKETS were widely anticipating that President Donald Trump would use his speech to the Economic Club of New York on Tuesday to trumpet progress on reaching the first phase of a trade deal with China.

Instead, all he said was that an agreement "could happen soon.” That’s not exactly the language markets wanted to hear, which helps explain why equity markets spent much of the rest of the day erasing the bulk of their gains.