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This Bessent fiasco of inside information is unfolding in slow motion.

The latest is from CNBC that reports:

Source in the room tells me this is a rough transcript of the comments Treasury Secretary Bessent made yesterday at a closed door event that are moving markets today:

“The next steps with China are, no one thinks the current status quo is sustainable at 145 and 125 [percent]. So I would posit that over the very near future, there will be a de-escalation. And I think that that should give the world, the markets, a sigh of relief… We have an embargo now, on both sides, right?”

There are two notable things here. The main one is that he added he believes it’s coming “in the very near future” and also that the comments were yesterday, not this morning as originally reported. (Update: CNBC’s Eamonn Javers reached out to let us know the part about yesterday was an error).

Separately, the White House’s Leavitt is now saying that ‘the ball is moving in the right direction’ with China.

Bessent also highlighted something we wrote about seven days ago, noting the plunge in ocean freight.

“If you look, I think that saw a number that container bookings between China in the U.S., and this is from two weeks ago, is down 64%. So the goal isn’t to decouple. The goal isn’t to decouple.

And I do say China is going to be a slog in terms of the negotiations, because that engagement started – I would – not yet. But I think again, I think neither side thinks the status quo, is sustainable, but I’ve said it quite a bit.”

And he said: “What’s different about China that we’ve never seen before. If you go back to the ’80s, our economic rivals were our military allies. So if you look at the Reagan-Carr negotiation… it was basically Japan and the Europeans, and it was just an economic negotiation.

Now with China, there’s this balance between economic and military that we’ve never seen before. And I think that at the end of the day, could be very optimistic, because there is a big deal to be done. I think that no one in this room believes that China does not need to rebalance. I think that maybe some people in this room, but certainly no one in the administration, believes that they have had free and fair trade.”

This article was written by Adam Button at www.forexlive.com.

The latest headline that moved markets was from Politico and it was this:

White House is ‘close’ on Japan, India tariff agreements — but expect them to be light on specifics

That sounds promising, right?

Within the story it sounds more like the “the terms of reference to lay down a roadmap for the negotiations” that the USTR announced earlier today:

“I wouldn’t even call them deals,” another person close to the White House said of the frameworks the administration is looking to announce. “Basically, [it’s] an agreement that we would like to talk about doing a deal.”

And this:

“They’re going to start rolling out a bunch of stuff that just says, you know, we’re signing something that says we’re going to start talks,” they added.

As for a timeline?

It may take months to hammer out the final deals

How many months? The average US bilateral trade deal has taken 18 months to hammer out. The USMCA in Trump’s last term — which was the light re-hashing of NAFTA — took 13 months. The US wantts to do 90 deals in 90 days.

After the initial headline excitement, the market has recoiled at these details. The President can proclaim these kinds of things loudly as ‘deals’ but you’re not going to fool the market and this won’t remove any uncertainty.

At best, I could see a situation where within the 90 day period, they announce a few things and bring tariffs down to 0% while deals are negotiated. How realistic is that? Not very.

The S&P 500 has now given back 60 points of gains.

This article was written by Adam Button at www.forexlive.com.

From the private meeting with Treas. Sec. Bessent

• China negotiations will be a ‘slog’
• Describes current bilateral trade situation as an embargo
• No one thinks the current status quo between China is sustainable. Therefore there will be de-escalation with China over the very near future.
• Goal is not to decouple US, China economies
• US rebalancing with China, but questions is whether Beijing is ready to do it.
• Rebalancing of the China economy towards consumption and US economy towards manufacturing in 2 to 3 years would be a huge win

This article was written by Greg Michalowski at www.forexlive.com.

Politico is reporting that the White House says that they are close on Japan and India trade agreement:

• The White House is closing in on general agreements with Japan and India to stave off massive US tariffs, but they are likely to leave many of the thorny details to be hashed out at a later date.
• Administration officials are working to eight what three people close to the White House described as memorandums of understanding or a broad architecture for future deals.
• May take months to hammer out the final deals as these things are complicated.

Meanwhile, from Bessent:

• No one thinks the current status quo is between China is sustainable. Therefore there will be de-escalation with China over the very near future.
• Goal is not to decouple US, China economies
• US rebalancing with China, but questions is whether Beijing is ready to do it seeks

This article was written by Greg Michalowski at www.forexlive.com.