President Trump on Wednesday confirmed that trade tensions with China remain high, telling a reporter who asked whether the two countries are headed for a prolonged trade war, "Well you're in one now."

The president's comments came despite Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent suggesting that an extension of the tariff pause between the US and China was possible, and Trump still plans to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping later this month.

Over the past week, relations between the two countries have been increasingly strained, though there's been some mixed signals about just how serious the fallout may be.

On Friday, Trump said the US would impose an additional 100% tariff on Chinese goods starting on Nov. 1 over Beijing's plan to impose new export controls on rare earth minerals.

At the start of this week, Wall Street breathed a sigh of relief when Trump hinted at a possible deescalation.

“Don’t worry about China, it will all be fine! Highly respected President Xi just had a bad moment,” he wrote on Truth Social.

Since then, however, China sanctioned US units of a South Korean shipping company, while Trump threatened to further curtail trade with the country in response to its halt of US soybean purchases.

Read more: What Trump's tariffs mean for the economy and your wallet

US tariffs on China of nearly 145% in some cases are on hold until Nov. 10 while the two countries negotiate a larger trade deal. Chinese tariffs on US goods ballooned to 125% before the pause.

Here's what else to know on Trump's tariffs:

Americans are set to pay more than half of President Trump's tariffs as companies raise prices, according to Goldman Sachs.

Early next month, the US Supreme Court is set to hear a challenge to Trump's most sweeping tariffs — the "reciprocal" country-by-country duties that you can see in the graphic above. A ruling against the tariffs — which would be in line with lower-court decisions — could have significant ramifications for Trump's tariff strategy.

New duties on kitchen cabinets and vanities took effect Oct. 1.

Tariffs on timber and certain wood products (like furniture) took effect Oct. 14.

Automaker Stellantis (STLA) has unveiled a $13 billion investment in the US over the next four years and will create 5,000 jobs in a bid to counteract the impact of tariffs.

Apple (AAPL) CEO Tim Cook said he will boost investment in China and further step up cooperation there during a meeting with Beijing's industry minister on Wednesday, despite threats from Trump to slap tariffs on the iPhone maker's foreign-made products.

Yahoo Finance's Jennifer Schonberger reports:

Both Treasury Secretary Bessent and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer slammed China in a joint press conference on Wednesday, saying the country has violated an earlier accord with the US by asserting export controls on rare earths.

Greer called China’s move a “supply chain power grab” and an “exercise on economic coercion on the global economy,” warning that the movement of everything from household appliances to cars could be affected around the world.

Bessent threatened decoupling from the world's second-largest economy if China continues this behavior, though he said that’s not what the US wants and that he would be speaking with allies about steps that can be taken.

Bessent also noted that he expects to fly to South Korea early ahead of the APEC summit later this month to meet with his counterpart and that, as of Tuesday night, President Trump is still expected to meet with Chinese President Xi at APEC in a few weeks.

It’s possible that the current 90-day pause on tariffs between the US and China could be extended, he added, but that it won’t be negotiated before leaders meet in South Korea.

Read more here.

Data from the Chicago Fed suggests that US retail sales, excluding auto sales, likely rose again in September, up 0.5%. Much of the growth is being driven by higher-income households, while middle and lower income consumers are feeling the squeeze due to rising prices and uncertainty.

Meanwhile, in its lates Beige Book report the Federal Reserve highlighted strains across businesses and households. Some have cited tariff-driven costs and policy uncertainty as the reason.

\\"Consumers are increasingly fatigued by high price levels and navigating an economy that feels less favorable,\\" said Will Auchincloss, Americas retail sector leader at EY-Parthenon. \\"We expect to see more intentional spending, with households prioritizing value and necessity over discretionary purchases.\\"

Via Reuters:

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Wednesday insisted that Washington did not want to escalate a trade conflict with China, stressing that President Donald Trump is ready to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping in South Korea later this month.

Bessent told a CNBC event that officials from both countries were in touch daily to set up the meeting, and Washington did not want to decouple from the second-largest economy in the world.

He said it was due to trust between Trump and Xi that the trade conflict between the two countries has not escalated further.

The two countries appeared poised to return to an all-out trade war late last week, after China on Thursday announced a major expansion of its rare earths export controls. Trump responded on Friday by threatening to raise tariffs on Chinese goods to triple-digit levels, sending financial markets and U.S.-China relations into a tailspin. Bessent and other officials have sought to get ties back on track in a series of interviews this week.

Read more here.

Chinese state broadcaster CCTV said that US-owned and operated cargo ships built in China would be exempt from new docking fees. The tit-for-tat dock fees took effect on Tuesday, marking a key front in the US-China trade war.

From FreightWaves:

The trade partners are charging vessels around $50 per net ton on each voyage calling the other’s ports, as relations have deteriorated over the past two weeks.

Matson (NYSE: MATX) and APL, a unit of France’s CMA CGM, operate China-built ships under the U.S. flag.

At the same time, Matson’s Manukai, an 11,149-ton container ship built in Philadelphia, became the first U.S.-flag vessel to be billed — a total of more than $600,000 when it called Ningbo on Tuesday, according to Xinde Marine News, citing industry sources.

China also exempted empty ships entering shipyards for repairs.

The Chinese charges also extend to vessel operators with 25% or more U.S. ownership. Bulker and tanker operators Norden, DHT, Star Bulk and 2020 Bulkers released statements clarifying their status below that threshold.

Read more here.

Dollar Tree's (DLTR) stock rose 8% before the bell on Wednesday after the retailer announced at its Investor Day that it expects earnings per share to gain as much as 10% annually over the next three years. The company said that despite higher traffic from consumers that can afford to spend more, tariffs still present a problem.

Bloomberg News reports:

The Chesapeake Virginia-based company also said earnings per share is expected to grow by a “high-teens percentage” in fiscal 2026 due to cost benefits.

Dollar Tree, which made this projection ahead of an investor presentation slated for later on Wednesday, is trying to sharpen its focus under Chief Executive Officer Mike Creedon after selling the struggling Family Dollar chain for about $1 billion. That was far less than the almost $9 billion it paid for the business ten years ago.

While more traffic from higher income consumers has helped the company, tariffs are expected to present a tougher hurdle in the second half. At the same time, competition has intensified as shoppers cut back on spending.

Read more here.

Reuters reports:

Pfizer (PFE) Chief Executive Albert Bourla said on Tuesday that the U.S. pharmaceutical industry needs to collaborate with China’s, where speedy processes have vaulted it to 30% of global drug development over the past decade.

\\"In biopharma, China's dramatic speed, cost and scale have triggered a shift in the global competitive landscape,\\" Bourla said, speaking at the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations Gala in New York.

He said the country currently has around 1,200 novel drug candidates, compared with 10 years ago when there was about 60.

The remarks come as U.S. President Donald Trump has targeted top economic rival China with a cascade of tariff orders on billions of dollars of imported goods that he says is aimed at narrowing a wide trade deficit, bringing back lost manufacturing and crippling the fentanyl trade.

Read more here.

IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said on Tuesday that the lack of pushback from most countries to President Trump's tariffs is among the main factors helping to stimulate global economic growth.

Reuters reports:

\\"The world, so far, and I cannot stress enough, so far, has opted not to retaliate and to continue to trade pretty much on the rules that have existed,\\" Georgieva said during an event at the IMF and World Bank annual meetings in Washington, noting that this avoided debilitating tariff escalation.

Earlier on Tuesday, the fund had edged up its 2025 global GDP growth forecast in its World Economic Outlook to 3.2% from a 3.0% forecast in July, but warned that a renewed U.S.-China trade war threatened by Trump could slow output significantly.

Also supporting global growth is that the effective U.S. tariff rate has come down from prior estimates, Georgieva told the Bretton Woods Committee event. After calculating that Trump's tariffs announced in April would average 23%, the rate was reduced by U.S. trade deals with the European Union, Japan and other major partners to about 17.5%, she said.

Read more here.

Reuters reports:

China's sanctions against five U.S.-linked affiliates of South Korean shipbuilder Hanwha Ocean are seen as a warning gesture without immediate impact, and Beijing is unlikely to gain much by expanding them, analysts said on Wednesday.

The move, announced on Tuesday when the U.S. and China began charging additional port fees targeting each other's vessels, comes ahead of an expected meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping in late October to resolve the protracted trade war between the world's two largest economies.

China's commerce ministry banned transactions and cooperation with Hanwha Ocean's U.S.-linked affiliates, citing security risks stemming from their involvement in the U.S. government's \\"relevant investigative activities.\\" It did not elaborate on the suspected activities.

Hanwha, one of the world's largest shipbuilders, owns Philly Shipyard in the U.S. and has won contracts to repair and overhaul U.S. Navy ships. Its entities also will build a U.S.-flagged LNG carrier.

The sanctions do not have any direct impact as the Hanwha affiliates Beijing sanctioned have no business connection with China, said Korea Investment & Securities analyst Kang Kyung-tae.

Read more here.

Stellantis (STLA) has announced a $13 billion investment in the US and will create 5,000 new jobs over the next four years, in a bid to counteract the effects of President Trump's tariffs.

Yahoo Finance senior reporter Pras Subramanian discusses the latest news from the Big Three automaker.

The maker of Jeep, Dodge, and Ram pickups said the $13 billion spend, the largest in its 100-year history, would result in US production jumping by 50%, with five new vehicle launches and 5,000 new jobs over the next four years.

The investment comes after the White House’s extensive tariff actions made imports from regions like Mexico, Canada, and Europe, where Stellantis operates some facilities, too costly. President Trump has said that he wants more auto manufacturing in the US.

“This investment in the US — the single largest in the company’s history — will drive our growth, strengthen our manufacturing footprint and bring more American jobs to the states we call home,” said Antonio Filosa, Stellantis CEO and North America COO in a statement. “Accelerating growth in the US has been a top priority since my first day.”

Read more here.

Apple (AAPL) CEO Tim Cook said on Wednesday that he will boost investment and cooperation in China at a meeting with Beijing's Minister of Industry and Information Technology Li Lecheng.

Cook's latest comments come despite President Trump's threats to slap tariffs on the iPhone maker's foreign-made products. They also come at a time when Trump and China's President Xi Jinping are embroiled in a tug-of-war battle on trade, as the two sides seek to gain an advantage over the other.

Bloomberg News reports:

Li urged Apple to work closely with local suppliers, while Cook said Apple will boost cooperation with China. The country is Apple’s biggest market outside the US and remains a key manufacturing hub for the Cupertino, California-based company.

During his trip, Cook posted about meeting Labubu-creator Kasing Lung and visited an Apple store in Shanghai. He also outlined a donation to Tsinghua University, the country’s most prestigious college.

While Apple has been diversifying its supply chain away from China over the past few years, including increasing handset operations in India, it still makes the bulk of iPhones in the country with help from Foxconn Technology Group and Luxshare Precision Industry Co.

It’s committed to expanding its manufacturing presence in the US, while also adding production capacity elsewhere. The company is preparing to make new smart home devices in Vietnam to lessen its dependence on China.

But Apple has run into challenges with its diversification efforts. Earlier this year, Foxconn sent hundreds of Chinese engineers at its iPhone plants in India back home, dealing a blow to Apple’s manufacturing push in the South Asian country.

Read more here.

President Trump threatened to institute new trade restrictions on China in the latest escalation between the two countries.

\\"I believe that China [is] purposefully not buying our Soybeans,\\" the president wrote on Truth Social, saying he considers it \\"an Economically Hostile Act.\\"

Trump added that his administration is considering curtailing trade with China as \\"retribution,\\" such as by targeting purchases of cooking oil from the country.

The impact of President Trump's tariffs is expected to weigh on economic growth worldwide in 2025, according to the International Monetary Fund's new World Economic Outlook released Tuesday.

\\"The outlook for the global economy continues to point to dim prospects, both in the short and the long term,\\" according to the IMF report.

Global growth is projected to decelerate to 3.2% this year from 3.3% in 2024 and skid further to 3.1% in 2026.

That growth forecast, little changed from the IMF's estimates in July, reflects gradual adaptation to trade tensions. Growth is expected to be much lower than the pre-pandemic average of 3.7%.

And the IMF predicts much of the bite from tariffs could be yet to come. While the impact on rewiring of supply chains and inflation has been muted so far, the IMF said that may reflect a delay in higher prices and costs being passed through.

Very little of what would be expected to pass through to consumer prices has actually done so thus far, according to the IMF's examination of certain goods. Household appliances, for instance, have reflected the cost of tariffs, but many categories, including food and clothing, have not, according to the IMF.

And companies may not be able to absorb higher tariff costs, as the US dollar has weakened with the onset of tariffs.

Read more here.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent did not mince his words in an interview with the Financial Times on Monday. Bessent said that China is trying to \\"bring everyone else down with them.\\" Bessent's comments follow a series of back-and-forth moves between Washington and Beijing, which began when China imposed export restrictions on rare earths.

President Trump followed by threatening an additional 100% tariffs on China last Friday. But the US president appeared to change tack over the weekend, hinting at deescalation.

The FT reports:

Bessent told the FT that China’s introduction of the controls — three weeks before US President Donald Trump is expected to meet his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in South Korea — reflected problems in its own economy.

“This is a sign of how weak their economy is, and they want to pull everybody else down with them,” Bessent said on Monday.

“Maybe there is some Leninist business model where hurting your customers is a good idea, but they are the largest supplier to the world,” he added. “If they want to slow down the global economy, they will be hurt the most.”

Bessent added: “They are in the middle of a recession/depression, and they are trying to export their way out of it. The problem is they’re exacerbating their standing in the world.”

The US Treasury secretary spoke to the FT days after China unveiled expansive restrictions on rare earths and critical minerals supplies, prompting Trump to threaten an additional 100 per cent tariff on imports from China from November 1.

In the US, futures tracking the S&P 500 (^GSPC) were down 0.9 per cent on Tuesday while those for the Nasdaq were 1.1 per cent lower. Global markets have whipsawed in recent days after the flare-up between the US and China reignited fears of a return to the global trade war that rocked markets earlier this year.

One person familiar with the situation said the US had drafted countermeasures it would take if the two sides did not reach agreement. The person said the US would prioritise the issue when G7 ministers met in Washington this week for World Bank-IMF meetings.

Read more here.

Ericsson's (ERIC) shares surged by 14% on Tuesday after the Swedish telecommunications company beat forecasts for its quarterly earnings growth and also shrugged off US tariffs.

Reuters reports:

The Swedish group has outperformed rivals in winning U.S. contracts, mainly a $14 billion deal with AT&T, making it the world's second-biggest vendor in the radio access network market after China's Huawei, according to research firm Dell'Oro.

\\"No company is immune to tariffs. So we will see what happens there and what decisions are coming. But what we see so far is no more impact going forward,\\" Ericsson's finance chief Lars Sandström said in a Reuters interview.

Adjusted earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) excluding restructuring charges were 15.4 billion Swedish crowns ($1.62 billion) in the quarter through September. That was 9.2% higher than the 14.1 billion crowns forecast in an Infront consensus poll of analysts provided by the company.

However, sales in Americas slowed by 8% from 2024, when there was a robust quarter due to previous deliveries and network investments by large customers.

It also announced a five-year partnership with Vodafone to modernize programmable networks but didn't disclose details.

In August, Ericsson completed the sale of its Iconectiv business, yielding a one-off profit gain of about 7.6 billion Swedish crowns and offering it scope for higher dividends and or a share buyback program.

Read more here.

China signaled on Tuesday that it intends to keep communications channels with the US open after a series of back-and-forth moves between Washington and Beijing intensified relations between the world's biggest economies.

China's Ministry of Commerce said \\"the door is open\\" in reference to talks between the two sides. However, Beijing also defended its decision to impose export restrictions on rare earths amid escalating trade tensions in recent weeks.

Reuters reports:

Separately, Vice Finance Minister Liao Min, a key member of Beijing’s trade negotiating team who’s in Washington this week, has held a meeting with his counterpart at the US Treasury, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. Liao is attending the annual gathering of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank and is expected to have further discussions with the US official later in the week, the person said, asking to remain anonymous because the talks weren’t public.

“Both sides have been in communications all along under the China-US economic and trade consultation mechanism and we had a working-level meeting just yesterday,” an unnamed spokesperson for the Ministry of Commerce said in a statement.

The remarks came just hours after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Beijing had failed to respond to US inquiries over the weekend following China’s announcement of export controls on products containing traces of certain rare earths. It marked China’s first major attempt to exercise long-arm jurisdiction over foreign companies that target the chip industry.

Read more here.

The latest trade tensions between the US and China has rattled markets. Here's a list of all the assets affected by the latest tariff turmoil.

Currencies: The dollar (DX=F) fluctuated on Tuesday following China's response to the US on tariffs. Risk sentiment fell as investors moved towards traditional safe havens such as the yen and Swiss franc.

Crypto: Cryptocurrencies bitcoin (BTC-USD) and ether (ETH-USD) continued to fall on Tuesday. Bitcoin dropped almost 3% to $111,950, while ether slumped 4%, falling below $4,000. The crypto market shed $150 billion amid the bubbling in US-China trade tensions.

Oil: Brent crude futures (BZ=F) fell 2% to $61.93 and US West Texas Intermediate crude (CL=F) also dropped 2% to $58.15 at 08:58 GMT, reversing earlier gains amid uncertainty around US-China trade relations.

China has responded to the US by sanctioning five US units of Hanwha Ocean Co. The move fueled a fall in global equities on Tuesday as concerns on rising trade tensions between the world's largest economies grew among investors. Hanwha Ocean's (042660.KS) stock dropped 8%, while shares of Chinese shipbuilders rose.

Bloomberg News reports:

The sanctions, targeting five US units of Hanwha Ocean Co., fueled a slump in global equities on Tuesday as traders dialed back hopes for an easing of tensions between the world’s largest economies. Hanwha Ocean’s stock sank as much as 8%, while shares of Chinese shipbuilders rallied.

China’s moves escalate a long-standing dispute with the US over maritime dominance. Both sides have already slapped special port fees on each other’s vessels, while the US has rallied allies — especially South Korea — to help it revive a moribund American shipbuilding industry.

Shipping, which facilitates about 80% of global trade, is just one point of contention in the China-US relationship that has kept global investors on edge in recent days. Beijing has tightened export controls on rare earths among other measures, while the US has expanded curbs on China’s access to chips and threatened the country with additional 100% tariffs.

Read more here.

A new analysis from Goldman Sachs on Sunday suggested that US consumers will ultimately pay for more than half of the cost of tariffs.

The firm predicted that by year-end, 55% of the costs of the Trump administration's tariffs will be paid by consumers, 18% will be paid by foreign exporters, and 5% will be evaded.

Unlike in 2019, the entirety of tariffs hasn't been passed along to consumers yet, since \\"companies might be waiting longer this time\\" before raising prices to see if tariffs will remain in place amid legal challenges, the Goldman research team wrote. Companies may have also stockpiled inventory before the tariffs took effect to limit the impact.

\\"[Companies] have been absorbing the cost [of] the higher prices, and the way they absorb those higher prices is ... by being incredibly efficient,\\" National Retail Federation chief economist Mark Matthews told Yahoo Finance. \\"You can't be incredibly efficient forever, ... eventually it will have to turn into job cuts and wage reductions, and that's where the economy gets hurt.\\"

On Friday, US markets sold off after Trump posted on Truth Social that the US would impose an additional 100% tariff rate on China in response to the country's rare earth export controls. Trump backtracked somewhat on Sunday, sending all three major indexes higher on Monday.

Goldman said, \\"We are not assuming any changes to tariff rates on imports from China, but events in recent days suggest large risks.\\"

Canadian foreign minister Anita Anand is traveling to New Delhi, Mumbai, Singapore, and Hangzhou, China, this week as the country seeks to strengthen ties with China and India to boost trade and investment.

Anand's trip also comes as trade talks with the Trump administration remain fragile.

Bloomberg reports:

Her task is hard and extremely delicate: Canada’s disputes with Asia’s two most populous countries are serious, and any steps to ease tensions with China will need to be taken carefully to avoid triggering a reprisal from US President Donald Trump.

But Anand argues Canada is taking the same approach with every country — putting the interests of its workers and businesses first. It’s a clear shift under Prime Minister Mark Carney, who has prioritized the economy above all else, scrapping many of the tenets of Justin Trudeau’s foreign policy.

“It goes back to being a sovereign country,” Anand said in an interview with Bloomberg News, when asked how Canada can balance its relationships with China and the US.

Read more here.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, speaking to Fox Business on Monday, said that he still expects President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping to meet. He also noted that all options are on the table for retaliating against China's export controls on rare earths.

“He will be meeting with party chair Xi in Korea — I believe that meeting will still be on,” Bessent said, adding that there had been “substantial communication” over the weekend.

Trump threatened to cancel the meeting with Xi on Friday in a post where he also announced plans to impose additional tariffs of 100%, starting Nov. 1.

“This is China versus the world — they have pointed a bazooka at the supply chains and the industrial base of the entire free world, and we’re not going to have it,” Bessent said.

Read more here from Bloomberg.