US equity markets advanced although weak manufacturing data and news that the US government had threatened to impose a wave of new tariffs on US$4B of additional euro zone goods kept the rally in check - Dow up +69-points or +0.26% and sits ~0.6% shy of its record all time high (26,951.81). The broader S&P500 climbed +0.29% to a fresh record closing high (2,973.01), NASDAQ +0.22%. Tesla Inc rallied over >7% in after hours trading after reporting that it had delivered a better-than-forecast 95,200 electric cars in the second quarter. President Trump's trade adviser, Peter Navarro, who was one of the foremost 'China hawks' in the US administration, told CNBC that talks between Washington and Beijing were headed in a "very good direction". On the other side of the Pacific, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang announced at the World Economic Forum that his country would speed up the opening up of its financial services sector.
