Trump softens his rhetoric toward China?

? Today, October 13, 2025, after Friday’s market crash, investors received an unexpected morning gift. U.S. index futures jumped sharply — market participants interpreted Donald Trump’s new statements as a signal of a possible truce in the trade standoff between the U.S. and China.

Just over the weekend, the former president had threatened “100-percent tariffs” and new restrictions on technology exports, but now, speaking to reporters, he said that “the U.S. does not want to harm China” and that “everything will be fine.” These words sounded like a breath of fresh air after several days of panic and became the catalyst for a strong rebound.

Economists note that markets are now reacting not to actual actions but to the tone of political signals. Any phrase hinting at de-escalation is immediately reflected in prices.

What moves the market today:

• On Friday, tariff fears dragged the Nasdaq down nearly 4%, and the capitalization of the largest tech companies fell by hundreds of billions of dollars.
  
  
  
  
  

• Today, Trump said that the introduction of tariffs “could take forever” — and this instantly calmed investors, prompting them to return to risk assets.
• Gold hit a new all-time high — a sign that investors are still looking for a “safe haven” in case of another wave of turbulence.
• Oil has partially recovered from five-month lows: the market expects industrial demand to grow if the trade war truly begins to ease.
• This week marks the start of the earnings season — JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, TSMC, Oracle, and Tesla will report first. Their results will serve as a litmus test for assessing the state of the U.S. corporate sector.

Cautious optimism
The market now balances between fear and hope. Any new political statement can reverse the trend in the opposite direction. Despite the morning rally, many investors maintain defensive positions, preferring to hold part of their assets in gold and short-term bonds.

Analysts warn that softening rhetoric is not the same as real progress in negotiations. Without concrete steps toward tariff removal or agreement signing, the effect of “loud words” will fade quickly.

Politics and markets are playing together again.
While Washington and Beijing continue to show determination to “defend their interests firmly,” investors are forced to react to every pause, smile, or slip of the tongue in leaders’ statements.

? Bottom line: if the meeting between Donald Trump and Xi Jinping does take place, markets may experience a short but powerful rally. If the dialogue stalls again, volatility will remain high, and the September panic scenario could easily repeat itself.