Citi Wealth Insights

The US economy is growing at a fairly strong pace – But where is the inflation?

At the March FOMC meeting, the US Federal Reserve left policy rates unchanged and surprised investors by expecting no further rate hikes for 2019 versus two hikes previously.

Citi analysts believe that rest of the world would be highly vulnerable to a US growth shock, but this may not fully reflect the increasingly important role China plays globally.

President Trump announced he will extend a deadline to raise tariff on Chinese goods beyond March 1st after the latest round of trade talks that wrapped up Sunday in Washington. Chinese equities subsequently rallied on the news with the Shanghai Composite Index gaining 5.60% on Monday.

The first five trading days of January are often perceived as indicative of January equity performance and the overall year’s potential.

At a post-G20 summit meeting in Buenos Aires on Saturday night, Donald Trump and Xi Jinping agreed to halt trade tariffs for 90 days to allow for further talks.