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This is CNN breaking news,
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and we begin this hour
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with President Trump
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set to meet with his cabinet
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as a key part of his second term.
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Agenda hangs in the balance
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right now up on Capitol Hill.
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And after a week of tariff whiplash
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here in the United States,
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as the president's
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clearly intensifies
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and as we know, Wall Street
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doesn't like the uncertainty, right?
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Wednesday's green bounce
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after the tariffs will pause.
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That is turned into Thursday's red.
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Reality check.
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Let's go to CNN chief national affairs
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correspondent Jeff Zeleny
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at the white House.
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you have reporting,
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along with your white House colleagues
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about how this all came to be,
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with a pause
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and this cabinet meeting today as well.
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Good morning, Pamela.
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It certainly was an extraordinary
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turn of events yesterday,
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not even quite 24 hours ago.
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But we have learned that it certainly was
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that the president
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was receiving
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from some members of his cabinet,
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including the the
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the Treasury Secretary,
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Scott Benson,
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who will be in that room today
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when the cabinet is meeting.
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he was the one, of course,
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who is really sounding the alarm
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and telling the president
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how deep the bond markets
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were reacting to.
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The president's a sweeping, tariff plan.
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So one thing that this whole, situation
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has really, shined a light on,
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are the differing, pieces of advice
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that the president was hearing from,
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Scott Bassett,
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for example,
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the Treasury secretary versus
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his longtime
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trade adviser, Peter
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Navarro, who was urging the president
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not to make negotiations.
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A big question, though,
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heading into this
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cabinet meeting, is Elon
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Musk going to be in the room?
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We have not seen,
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much of him in recent days,
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but he's been very active
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on social media.
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And his view on this,
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sweeping tariff plan was that
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it was not good for the economy.
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So he was throwing
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stones, quite literally at the top
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But the top economic adviser,
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Kevin Hassett
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talked about the cabinet
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meeting earlier like this.
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USTR has informed us
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that there may be 15 countries
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now that have made explicit offers,
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that we're studying and considering.
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And you know,
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deciding whether they're good enough
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to present to the president,
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the chief of staff's office
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has asked all the principals that have,
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skin in the game to come and discuss
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what their views are about,
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how this should go.
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And, that's
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what the purpose of the meeting was.
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So the offers that Kevin Hassett
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is talking about,
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there are from allies
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Japan, South
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Korea and others
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who have opened, lines of communication
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trying to lower their,
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tariff percentage with the president.
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So this is all coming
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as the trade war is very much
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still on with China.
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There is no question about that.
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But the U.S.
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is trying to,
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sort of a circle our allies, if you will,
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Wolf, to have a united front
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against China.
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And it's interesting,
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Jeff, Kevin Hassett is also pushing
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back on suggestions
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that President Trump
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actually manipulated the markets
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when he told people
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it was a, quote, good time
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before announcing the pause,
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Democratic Senator Adam
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Schiff of California
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says he plans
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to write to the white House about it.
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How is the administration
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defending itself?
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Well, if there is no question
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that, timeline of a few hours
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between when the president sent
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that message,
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time to buy versus
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about a 118 yesterday
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afternoon, East Coast time
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when the president to send out,
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his message about,
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a pause on this, what happened
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during that intervening time?
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Did anyone have a heads up at all?
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Kevin Hassett,
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again, the president's
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top economic adviser,
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told us a short time ago
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that, you know, there was no,
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insider trading or any type of activities
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But Democrats on Capitol Hill
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are not convinced of that.
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the reality is,
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since Republicans
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control Capitol Hill,
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there will not be any type
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of a committee investigation.
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However, this will be something
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a moment in time, really.
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Those are four hours
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in time, yesterday
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that will be, viewed in the coming days.
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But for now, at least,
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the trade war on against China.
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The cabinet meeting is underway
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shortly, Wolf.
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at the white House for us, Jeff.
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Let's check in now with CNN business
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and politics correspondent
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Vanessa Cavett.
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She is standing by
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at the New York Stock Exchange.
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Vanessa, what are you seeing right now?
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Well, listen, markets
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are down this morning
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coming off of that enormous
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rally yesterday.
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And I spoke to a veteran trader,
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Peter Tuchman,
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just a short time ago,
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and he told me
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that the real reaction of Wall Street
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really comes
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the day after yesterday
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was this relief rally.
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And today reality has set in that
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we are still very much
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in the middle of a trade war
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with still historically high tariffs.
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That 90 day pause
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on those high reciprocal
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tariffs are very welcome news
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to traders here.
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I spoke to a few yesterday
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after the market close,
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who said that
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any time the Dow is up nearly 3000 points
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that is a good day.
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However, today they are facing down high
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tariffs on China at 125% tariff.
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You have those tariffs in place
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25% on autos.
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And then of course
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you have that 10% universal tariff
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that is in effect right now.
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And you see the markets there right now
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the Dow down about more than 2.5%.
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Look at the Nasdaq down
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more than 4% on the S&P down
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almost 3.5% there.
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But the big questions
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that I'm hearing from traders here
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today are sort of
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what are the off ramps
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here to this trade war.
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What are the negotiations
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that need to be happening
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between these more than 75 countries
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and the administration?
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And then especially looking at China,
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because so many of the
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the companies that are traded on
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here have direct ties to China,
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get many of their products from China.
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So what does that look like?
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One analysts said to me this morning
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that some of these negotiations
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could actually center
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more around other things,
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non-tariff related things,
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something like with China,
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maybe a deal with TikTok
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or even a deal with the Panama Canal.
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Those are the questions that they have.
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What is the off ramp for this
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trade war for the president?
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So here today,
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I would say less uncertainty,
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but still a level of uncertainty
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about where this trade war is going.
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we're not seeing sort
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of those dramatic swings
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this morning that we've seen in the past
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several weeks.
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That is because very much investors
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we're still in the middle of this.
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Obviously, though.
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that that 90 day pause went into effect
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just yesterday. Pamela.
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Yeah, I mean, clearly
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investors are sending a signal
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that they understand
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this is far from over.
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There's a lot to be worked out.
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But you do have a businessman
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like billionaire
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investor Bill Ackman,
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a Trump ally, celebrating this pause.
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He was among the business leaders
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who had turned on the president
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over his tariff plans.
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He's now praising the pause
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in implementing many of those taxes.
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What can you tell us about that?
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Yeah, well, we know the past
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several days
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leading up to these reciprocal tariffs
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going into effect.
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Bill Ackman,
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who as you mentioned is a billionaire.
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He is a founder of a huge hedge fund.
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He was saying that these tariffs
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would be I'm reading here
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quoting economic nuclear war.
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so he said that leading up to
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Wednesday's tariffs
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and he was warning that
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this could be really terrible
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for the economy.
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Now that the president
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has reversed course
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and put this 90 day pause into effect,
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he is coming out and saying that, yes,
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he was raising concern,
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but he's praising the president
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in what he calls
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the art of the deal
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that the president actually did right
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by this deal.
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And Bill Ackman
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and other billionaires
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were raising those alarms
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for for several days,
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but many of them
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are seeing a little bit
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more of a relief here
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that the president has maybe
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listened to advisors, as Bill
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Ackman said,
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and really sort of
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put into place
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of a better roadmap
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for billionaires right now
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that really, you know,
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they play in the stock market.
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They obviously have their businesses
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tied to the stock market. Pamela.
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They can be against him
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one day and with him
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the next day as they see
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their stocks rise. Pamela.
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All right. Vanessa, thanks so much.
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Let me bring in Anna Stewart.
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So, Anna, we've been seeing European
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stocks rallying
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not just on the news
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that the Americans
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are opposing these tariffs for 90 days,
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but also the fact that the Europeans
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we're going
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the retaliatory tariffs
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that they put into effect.
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yesterday as well. Take us through that.
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Yeah. Look at that rally.
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It's pretty strong.
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And that's largely because, of course,
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the European markets were actually closed
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when the 90 day pause were announced.
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So they didn't have a rally yesterday.
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We're seeing it here.
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And I think it is
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being sustained
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as well by the fact that the EU
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is also going to pause for 90 days.
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Although the EU Commission
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president, Ursula von der Leyen, said
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that while they will pause for 90 days
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if negotiations are not satisfactory,
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countermeasures will kick in.
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So a bit of a warning there.
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But I think for European investors,
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this is possibly
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the first time that it's actually felt
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like almost a reality
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that perhaps the U.S.
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administration will negotiate with them.
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Up to this point,
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for instance, offered zero
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tariffs on industrial goods, on autos,
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and that's frankly being ignored.
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So perhaps this is an opportunity.
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Very different story
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elsewhere in the markets.
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Of course, Wall Street has opened
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lower today.
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The relief rally bet is over.
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And by a number of metrics,
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you know, even from JPMorgan
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not shifting their outlook
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in terms of recession, keeping it at 60%.
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Some of these assets suggest
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that people are still pricing
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in the likelihood of a recession.
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steeply lower at this stage,
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about 4.6% lower under the $60 a barrel
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it could finish today at the lowest it's
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been since April 2021.
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We're also seeing that the U.S.
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dollar fell sharply,
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and the bond yields for ten year
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bond yields in the U.S.,
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which of course,
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President Trump was concerned about.
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We haven't seen much of a shift there.
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So we've had this huge reversal.
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But actually a lot of the fears
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of a lot of the Euro PMIs,
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if that is even a word,
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is still out there.
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golf players don't
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know exactly what that's a what now
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It's a Wall Street wall now.
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And Stuart thank you so much.