Quote, and Chart, Of the Day

Per my yesterday blog post "Careful What You Wish For", Macro strategist Cameron Crise and I are on the same page:

"While much of the focus has been on the broad decline in China's imports, it's interesting to drill down into the imports from the U.S. particularly. The level of Chinese imports from America -- $9.359 billion -- was the lowest for a non-lunar new year month since October 2011. Unsurprisingly, the y/y rate has collapsed since Donald Trump threw gas on the trade-war fire in June of last year.

Sure, the usual (and unusual) suspects are getting trotted out to discuss how great the talks are going, but experience suggests that taking these comments at face value could be an expensive proposition. As the old saying goes, money talks and [something else] walks ... and right now the message from China is deafening."