Never A Dull Moment

Never a dull moment with President Dennison. If this were a reality TV show, the ratings would indeed be “tremendous”.

So Trump is right about that.

And ironically, the reason he’s right about that is precisely because he isn’t right about anything else. That is, there is nothing more entertaining than watching someone who is wrong about everything try and navigate the daily rigours of being President of the United States.

Wednesday got off to a decidedly harrowing start after China retaliated against the administration’s 301 tariffs following the USTR’s publication of affected products late Tuesday evening. Despite Wilbur Ross’s contention that Beijing’s response was “proportionate”, the soybean broadside was something of a surprise and as we detailed first thing Wednesday morning, “proportionality” isn’t really the issue here. Rather, the issue is that things are escalating rapidly and it looks like Beijing is zeroing in on Trump’s base ahead of the mid-terms. Consider this from Bloomberg:

China on Wednesday said it would issue 25 percent retaliatory levies on roughly $50 billion of U.S. imports, including soybeans, cars, chemicals and aircraft. These levies appear to be targeted at states, particularly in the Midwest, where Trump’s support is strongest. But, crucially, many of these states also have pivotal Senate and gubernatorial races in November. The economic blow from new tariffs could upend many of these races, potentially shifting control of statehouses and the U.S. Senate to Democrats.

Soybeans plunged on the China news:

Volume was off the charts:

yo… CBOT SOYBEAN VOLUME RISES TO ESTIMATED 728,539, 2ND MOST EVER

— Walter White (@heisenbergrpt) April 4, 2018

“A great deal of speculative length in soybeans and corn has been caught offside,” Saxo’s Ole Hansen said. Farmers are most assuredly not fucking amused.