US equity markets staged an impressive comeback to settle with modest losses - Dow down -66-points or -0.25%, recovering from an earlier -471-point tumble. Boeing Co fell 1.3% after The Wall Street Journal reported that the aeronautics company didn’t share information about a problem with a cockpit safety alert for about a year before the issue drew attention with the October crash of a 737 Max jet in Indonesia. The broader S&P500 lost -0.45% after having been down as much as -1.2%. Kraft Heinz Co rose +0.6%, shrugging off news that the food company will have to restate the financial statements in its annual reports for 2016 and 2017, and for each quarterly period for the first nine months of 2018, as it continues to investigate “certain misstatements.” NASDAQ settled with a -0.50% loss, having been down -~2.2% at is session lows. US equities initially tumbled as investors responded to President Trump's weekend social media posts threatening to more than double tariffs (to 25% from 10%) on US$200B of China's sales to the US from this Friday (10 May) and impose new taxes of 25% on a further US$325B of China imports. However, investors were buoyed by a CNBC report that a Chinese delegation will still visit the US to commence trade talks on Wednesday (8 May). However, US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer accused Chinese officials of backtracking in trade talks and said US$200B in Chinese goods will face higher tariffs starting Friday (6 May). “Over the course of the last week or so, we’ve seen an erosion in commitments by China, I would say retreating from commitments that have already been made, in our judgment,” Mr Lighthizer told reporters in Washington. .In merger and acquisition (M&A) news, Anadarko Petroleum Corp (up +3.8%) confirmed Occidental Petroleum Corp (+1.4%) raised the cash portion of its rival buyout bid, which Anadarko said last week could represent a “superior proposal” to Chevron Corp.’s (+1%).
