Investors Shrug Off Trump’s China Deals – By Wayne Duggan (usnews.com) / Nov 9 2017
President Donald Trump announced more than $250 billion in deals between U.S. and Chinese companies on Thursday. In a speech in Beijing, Trump said he intends to bring balance to the trade relationship between the U.S. and China, but U.S. investors seem unimpressed.
In his speech, Trump said the economic relationship between the U.S. and China has been a “very one-sided and unfair one,” adding that he doesn’t blame China. “After all, who can blame a country for being able to take advantage of another country for the benefit of its citizens?”
Of the U.S. companies involved in new deals with China, the biggest winners are Boeing Co. (BA), General Electric Co. (GE) and Qualcomm (QCOM). Boeing has announced $37 billion in airliner orders from a government holding company that supplies jets for Air China and China Southern Airlines. General Electric agreed to three separate aviation and industrial equipment deals with Chinese companies Juneyao Airlines, ICBC Leasing and China Datang Group totaling $3.5 billion.
And Qualcomm, which already generates more than half of its revenue from China, announced non-binding agreements with Chinese companies Xiaomi, OPPO and Vivo totaling $12 billion.
Trump and Chinese president Xi Jinping also said China Energy Investment Corp. plans to invest $84 billion in shale gas and chemical manufacturing in West Virginia over the next 20 years.
Sinopec Shanghai Petrochemical Co. (SHI) also plans to invest up to $43 billion in energy projects in Alaska that could create as many as 12,000 jobs.
Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com (JD) committed to buying $2 billion in U.S. goods, including beef and pork.
DowDuPont (DWDP), Caterpillar (CAT) and Honeywell International (HON) also announced partnerships with Chinese companies as part of the deal package.
But while Trump is celebrating what he sees as major progress, others are skeptical of the headlines.
“Interesting to see how many of those are past agreements/purchase orders repackaged,” Mexican ambassador to China Jorge Guajardo tweeted after the deals were announced.
“The market doesn’t seem to be buying into the Chinese announcement of $30 billion worth of ‘new’ jet orders,” he said, referencing Boeing stock’s modest decline on Thursday.
In addition to Boeing, stocks of most of the companies involved are trading lower following Trump’s speech.
PB/TK – Are investors waiting for the final tax reform bill to be completed before shouting “hooray!” over the latest Chinese deals or are they expecting a massive Chinese jolt to the system.
