The real question is not why the stock market is down this week. After all, the world’s two largest economies have seemed to be hurtling toward a major escalation of their trade war. American officials have complained that Chinese negotiators have been playing a bait-and-switch, backing away from concessions they had agreed to. If trade talks did disintegrate, even with the arrival of high-level Chinese officials in Washington, the economy would be in danger of experiencing a meaningful downturn and potentially a recession. It would particularly hammer the financial results of some of the prominent American companies that either import Chinese goods or rely on the country as a major export market.

Source: New York Times May 08, 2019 16:51 UTC