US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told a closed-door investor summit on Tuesday that President Donald Trump’s tariff war with China is unsustainable and that he expected the situation to de-escalate, Bloomberg News reported.
Citing people who attended the session on the sidelines of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank’s spring meetings, Bloomberg also reported that Bessent told his audience that negotiations with Beijing had not started but that a deal was possible.
The event was hosted by JPMorgan Chase & Co in Washington.
The Bloomberg report, which ran shortly before noon, appeared to send US stocks rocketing higher, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq up more than 3 per cent and the S&P 500 up more than 2 per cent.
The Treasury Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Earlier on Tuesday, the IMF cut its 2025 GDP growth forecast for the US deeper than that of China, as the tit-for-tat retaliations between the world’s two largest economies risk a prolonged decoupling.
