Nasdaq Climbs as US-China Trade War Thaw Sparks Market Relief Rally

Tech stocks lead charge as geopolitical tensions cool

Wall Street's tech-heavy index caught a tailwind today after Washington and Beijing dialed down recent trade rhetoric. The détente—however temporary—gave algos permission to buy what they'd been programmed to buy all along.

Pavlov's traders react to stimulus

Market participants shrugged off last week's saber-rattling as both nations walked back tariff threats. Never mind that the structural issues remain unresolved—for now, the machines see green.

The real winners? Hedge funds with automated 'risk-on' triggers and politicians who'll take credit for 'creating' this rally. Meanwhile, retail investors scramble to figure out if this is a breakout or just another headfake in the endless trade war psychodrama.

Huang says Nvidia has received the go-ahead to sell H20 chips in China

The US Department of Commerce has yet to release an official comment. Still, CEO Jensen Huang, speaking during a podcast yesterday with the Special Competitive Studies Project, confirmed he received the “thumbs up” from Washington. 

“The American tech stack should be the global standard, just as the American dollar is the standard by which every country builds on,” Huang remarked. He reiterated that while China is a competitor and adversary to America, the Asian nation should not be seen as an enemy.

Huang has been advocating for the US to open the locked channel of Nvidia chips to China, arguing that cutting off the market WOULD undermine US companies and boost competitors like Huawei. 

His lobbying efforts appear to have swayed the biggest voices of the Trump administration, including David Sacks, the White House’s AI and crypto czar.”

Nvidia created the H20 chip in compliance with US export restrictions implemented under President Joe Biden’s administration in 2023. It is less powerful than Nvidia’s flagship H100 chips, but has memory capabilities pertinent to the AI inference processes.

US-China trade numbers tank in tariff era

The US-China trade relationship is seemingly improving, but most parts of what both governments want changed are still unresolved. The overall volume of trade has dropped, but the US merchandise trade deficit is ballooning. 

In May, China’s share of total US trade fell to just 5.89%, the lowest monthly figure in over two decades. 

President TRUMP is headstrong in trying to shrink the US trade deficit, but it has grown in six of the past eight years, topping $1 trillion annually in recent years. Yet, for the first time in decades, the US trade deficit with Mexico and Canada combined surpasses that with China.

The Asian country ranks as the United States’ third-largest trade partner, trailing Mexico, which accounts for 16.22% of US trade, and Canada at 12.53%. The gap has grown so wide that China’s trade share is now closer to the combined percentage of all other countries outside the top two than it is to either Mexico or Canada individually.

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