Syz the moment

Meanwhile, Chinese imports are expected to increase to every other market, with the rest of North America predicted to see growth of 25 percent. Source: Statista @StatistaCharts

China's gold buying has been truly historic: China's gold reserves hit a RECORD 73.5 million troy ounces. China has bought a whopping 10 MILLION troy ounces of gold over the last 30 months. In effect, gold's share of China's total foreign reserves hit 7.1%, an all-time high. Source: Global Markets Investor

China’s hitting back at Trump’s 145% tariffs by choking off exports of rare earths — the weird metals your car, wind turbine, and fighter jet desperately need. That includes stuff like dysprosium and terbium which power the super-strong magnets in EV motors and defense tech. China’s latest export controls on rare earth minerals could cause shutdowns in automotive production, with stockpiles of essential magnets set to run out within months if Beijing fully chokes off exports. Beijing expanded its export restrictions to seven rare earth elements and magnets vital for electric vehicles, wind turbines and fighter jets in early April in retaliation for US President Donald Trump’s steep tariffs of 145 per cent on China. Government officials, traders and auto executives said that, with inventories estimated to last between three and six months, companies would be racing to stockpile more material and find alternative supplies to avoid major disruption. Jan Giese, a metals trader at Frankfurt-based Tradium, warned that customers had been caught off guard and most car groups and their suppliers appear to be holding only two to three months’ worth of magnets. “If we don’t see magnet deliveries to the EU or Japan in that time or at least close to that, then I think we will see genuine problems in the automotive supply chain,” said Giese. Source: FT

The statement by the commerce ministry, which was responding to reports that US President Donald Trump’s administration planned to use trade talks with multiple countries to try to isolate China, called on them to instead join Beijing to “resist unilateral bullying”. “China firmly opposes any party reaching a deal at the expense of China’s interests,” the ministry said on Monday. “If this happens, China will never accept it and will resolutely take countermeasures in a reciprocal manner.” China has become the focus of Trump’s trade war after the US president paused a wave of unilateral “reciprocal” tariffs on most countries but left levies on Chinese goods as high as 145 per cent in place. Beijing has retaliated, imposing its own tariffs of 125 per cent on US goods.

This means limited scope for 🇪🇺 to supplant China imports, which face prohibitive tariffs (main beneficiary is Vietnam). Source: Daniel Kral @DanielKral1

Source: Legitimate Targets

That’s a $20B annual loss for the United States at $60/barrel. This will help reducing the trade deficit... Source: Bloomberg, Spencer Hakimian on X, Vortexa

Marta Bengoa, professor of international economics at City University of New York, said that while the US and China remained heavily interdependent in trade, this meant the ultimate balance of risk was on the US side. “US dependence on China is higher, because China can source agricultural products from elsewhere more easily than the US can replace electronics and machinery,” she said. “Beijing is already buying up soyabeans from Brazil, for example, so in the end China has a bit more leverage.”