U.S. President Donald Trump met with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker on Wednesday, and reports from the meeting indicate that President Trump has agreed to hold back from implementing his impending automobile tariffs while the two sides continue negotiations for other trade challenges.
After the meeting President Juncker said that one of the areas to be focused on will be the current U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum. The tariffs were implemented to stay in-line with Trump’s protectionist policies but have been extremely troublesome for both Europe and America’s other trade partners, including Canada and Mexico.
In his own wrap-up of the meeting, Trump wrote that “A breakthrough has been quickly made that nobody thought possible!” This language was markedly different than Trump’s language only ten days ago when he referred to the European Union as a “foe” on trade.
The optimism that came out from the meeting was reflected on Wall Street on Wednesday, where all three major indexes closed higher. Their Thursday open is in question, however, since Facebook shares plummeted in after-hours trading after missing expectations. The tech giant’s stock plummeted over 20 percent, and the company is expected to lose more than $123 billion. Some analysts blamed the decline on the new European privacy regulations (GDPR) and the recent Cambridge Analytica scandal, though there were other reasons for the slide including lower than expected daily active users.
In contrast, Google parent company Alphabet surged to all-time highs on Tuesday after posting stellar second quarter financial results on Monday. Analysts are optimistic about the company’s wider offering set including YouTube, self-driving cars and other technological services.
The dollar was relatively flat against the euro on Thursday morning in Asia, trading at $1.1729. The greenback was down 0.15 percent against the yen, trading at 110.80. IT was also lower against the British pound, trading at $1.3199 as of 10:46 a.m. HK/SIN.