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However, concern remains that events in Hong Kong, riven by months of anti-government unrest, could undermine progress in trade talk.”

“All the uncertainty around U.S.-China (trade relationship) is putting a damper on investments. You don’t know where the world’s two largest economies are going and what the investment environment is going to be,” Paul Gruenwald, chief economist at S&P Global Ratings, told CNBC on Monday. “We’ve been arguing for some time that China slowing from a 7-8% back then to a 5.5% is a broadly healthy development,” Gruenwald told CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” adding that China’s labor force is currently “either flat or shrinking,” therefore the GDP per capita growth is still strong. In fact, the strained trade relationship is putting a greater dent on global growth than the direct impacts of tariffs he argued.”


The Wall Street Journal reports that the escalation of the U.S.-China trade war coincided with a downturn in U.S. equipment investment: “Companies slow capital investment for a variety of reasons, and few have explicitly tied their cutbacks to trade, typically citing slowing demand or project delays instead. Still, economists and analysts point to timing: The pullback began in third-quarter 2018, just as the U.S. and China began threatening and then imposing significant tariffs on one another’s goods.”

The trade conflicts and signs of slower global economic growth have been cited by the Federal Reserve as major sources of concern going forward, hence the need to reduce rates. According to the minutes of the last FOMC meeting released last week: “Many participants continued to view the downside risks surrounding the economic outlook as elevated, further underscoring the case for a rate cut at this meeting. In particular, risks to the outlook associated with global economic growth and international trade were still seen as significant despite some encouraging geopolitical and trade-related developments over the intermeeting period.”

There have been some more encouraging indicators on the U.S. manufacturing and service sectors as well lately. IHS Markit reported on Friday that their flash U.S. composite output index rose to a 4-month high of 51.9 in November (up from 50.9 in October) while the flash U.S. Manufacturing PMI rose to a 7-month high of 52.2. According to the IHS Market press release, “At  the  same  time,  both  manufacturers  and  service providers  indicated  a  rise  in  workforce  numbers. The overall increase in employment followed two successive months of payroll cuts.”

Commenting    on    the    flash    PMI    data, Chris Williamson, Chief  Business  Economist at IHS Markit, said: “A  welcome  upturn  in  the  headline  index  from  the flash  PMI  adds  to  evidence  that  the  worst  of  the economy’s  recent  soft  patch  may  be  behind  us. Output  of  the  combined  manufacturing  and  service sectors  rose  in  November  at  the  fastest  rate since July,  spurred by  improved  inflows  of  new  business. Encouragingly,  firms  took  on  staff  again  after  two months  of  headcount  reductions,  primarily to help deal with rising backlogs of work.”

There were also positive readings on the U.S. housing market last week as the Census Bureau reported “Privately‐owned housing units authorized by building permits in October were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,461,000.  This is 5.0 percent above the revised September rate of 1,391,000 and is 14.1 percent above the October 2018 rate of 1,281,000.  Privately‐owned housing starts in October were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,314,000.  This is 3.8 percent above the revised September estimate of 1,266,000 and is 8.5 percent above the October 2018 rate of 1,211,000. Briefing.com notes, “There was a sizable jump in starts (+8.6%) and permits (+8.2%) for multi-unit dwellings, yet the key takeaway from the report is that starts (+2.0%) and permits (+3.2%) increased for single-family units in an inventory-constrained environment for single-family homes.”

However, some leading economic indicators are still signaling sluggish U.S. economic growth in the near-term. The Conference Board’s Index of Leading Economic Indicators fell 0.1% in October 111.7, the third consecutive monthly decline.