For months, bubbling trade tensions between China and the U.S. seemed to calm to a simmer, with words like \u201cthaw\u201d and \u201ctruce\u201d swapped in for warnings of economic \u201cwar.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now, hostilities appear to be returning to full boil.<\/p>\n
A\u00a0series of tit-for-tat moves this week<\/a>\u00a0by the two superpowers has thrust trade hostilities back in the global spotlight, roiling markets and raising alarms of what might come next.<\/p>\n \u201cLet\u2019s poke the bear again,\u201d economist Aleksandar Tomic, an associate dean at Boston College, said of the renewed sparring. \u201cLet\u2019s stir the hornet\u2019s nest.\u201d<\/p>\n A look at where things stand in the U.S.-China trade standoff:<\/p>\n Signs of trade-war escalation roil markets<\/p>\n Tensions between China and the U.S. transcend any presidency or political party. But Donald Trump\u2019s return to the White House has brought new levels of rancor. A\u00a0volley of tariffs were introduced<\/a>, raised and reduced in the year\u2019s first half, igniting retaliation from Chinese leader Xi Jinping. But more recently, several months of relative calm had prevailed.<\/p>\n That truce showed signs of fizzling this week, though, with China announcing\u00a0strict new limits on exports of rare earth minerals<\/a>\u00a0crucial to high-tech products. Trump, in turn, threatened an additional 100% tax on Chinese imports by Nov. 1 and export controls on American software. Both sides also\u00a0hit one another\u2019s ships with new port fees<\/a>.<\/p>\n Whether public moves by Washington and Beijing are meant to advance private talks between the two sides is unknown. But they roiled stock markets, with Friday\u00a0bringing the S&P 500 its worst day<\/a>\u00a0since April and a new dose of uncertainty about what is next.<\/p>\n \u201cEither this is it, the so-called tariff truce is over and both sides are going to rapidly escalate or these are negotiation talks ahead of the talks between Xi and Trump,\u201d said Marc Chandler, chief market strategist at Bannockburn Capital Markets in Cincinnati, Ohio.<\/p>\n Jostling for advantage, with exports as bargaining chips<\/p>\n With so much unknown about any possible behind-the-scenes negotiations between the two nations, it is hard to gauge who might have the upper hand.<\/p>\n But China may sense an opening, with Trump\u00a0challenged by a government shutdown<\/a>\u00a0and the impacts of the ongoing trade war.<\/p>\n