020 7898 0500Trump took to his favourite social media platform on Friday to issue a threat to impose a 20% tariff on cars being imported from the EU. He believes it is unfair that the EU has imposed retaliatory tariffs on US imports following his decision to impose tariffs on steel and aluminium imports. Bizarrely, Trump said that he wanted EU carmakers to build cars in the US, but many already do.
Meanwhile, there was a raft of PMI data from the US which, on the whole impressed. Composite PMI came in at 56 against an expectation of 55.1; manufacturing PMI came in at 54.6 when 56.5 had been expected; and services PMI came in at 56.5 against an expectation of 56.4.
The dollar weakened against the euro and sterling, following continued optimism over the prospects over a UK rate hike in August, while eurozone PMI beat forecasts. This week we will see the final GDP growth rate figures for the first quarter of 2018.
