US President Donald Trump backed away from his latest threats to start a trade war with America's neighbours. Deals on no US tariffs for Mexico and Canada helped mark a positive step away from the brink, at least for another month.
Markets have been all over the place but going nowhere fast. Like the tariffs, they are back to square one. So far this week, the tariff story is trumping US payroll data as a driver.
Trump's tariff chaos driving global markets
Market moves continue to get pushed and pulled by the trump tariff on/off switch. That confirms that delayed tariff deals done to help avoid tariffs are good for risk exposure and growth.
The deep sell-off and the reversal in markets within 24 hours reflect Trump's dealmaking underscores that everything was negotiable. The latest news on Mexico and Canada is certainly a glass half full. However, the worry is that the can is being kicked down the road.
For now, the deal has extended the tariff drama for another month. But the real question now is: does Trump have clay feet? Is he blinking after the chaos and deep sell-off in markets? Trump is also under fire over his exercise of power.
On Monday, Trump sought to allay one of the most major recent scandals: Musk's access to treasury systems that oversee trillions of dollars of payments authorised by Congress.
This was in the midst of Trump's first weeks in office, during which some of his actions were deemed unconstitutional by legal experts. Trump stated that he has authorised the Tesla co-founder to oversee American government expenditures before payments.
However, he stressed that Musk does not have the authority to halt payments unilaterally without authorisation. The criticism, though, is of the access Musk has and the platform to use this to benefit many of his own businesses.
(With the inputs from the agencies)