US equity markets settled with modest gains - Dow up +43-points or +0.17% although banks remained iunder pressure from falling Treasury yields, with Goldman Sachs Inc down -0.36% and J.P.Morgan Chase & Co -1.07%. The broader S&P500 +0.21%, NASDAQ +0.27%. Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Zhang Hanhui said Thursday that provoking trade disputes amounted to “naked economic terrorism. ” Separately, Morgan Stanley chief, James Gorman, said in an interview on Bloomberg TV that a "collapse" in the stock market was unlikely, adding that trade talks between Beijing and Washington were likely to resume as there was simply too much to lose on the table. Bridgewater Associates founder Ray Dalio also shared his views on social media, typing that "It is widely believed that time is on China's side so that it is in the US interest to have any fight that's going to occur happen earlier and in China's interest to have it later. This is leading to the Trump administration's pushing the limits Worth keeping in mind is how Chinese and Americans fight wars differently (the Chinese more strategically by gaining relative strength and the Americans more by exchanging blows until one side gives up)."
