Seeking Alpha’s roundup of announcements, statements, and remarks that could impact markets, sectors, and individual stocks.
- Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that one of China’s lead trade negotiators, Li Chenggang, showed up in Washington uninvited in late August, acted “unhinged”, and warned that China would retaliate if the U.S. imposed port fees on its ships.
“Perhaps the vice minister who showed up here with very incendiary language on Aug. 28 has gone rogue,” Bessent said at a press conference on Wednesday, according to Bloomberg. “This individual was very disrespectful.”
Bessent also said Li had warned China would “cause global chaos” if the U.S. followed through on imposing port fees on Chinese ships.
- In response to Bessent’s claims, a spokesperson for China’s commerce ministry said Bessent’s account of Li’s visit was “seriously distorted.” She added that Li had visited Washington for follow-up trade talks and to present China’s position on the U.S.’s probe into its shipping and shipbuilding industries.
In a separate press briefing, Commerce Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian maintained that China’s position on trade has been “clear and consistent.”
“The U.S. should work with China to resolve relevant issues through dialogue and consultation based on equality, mutual respect, and reciprocity, rather than repeatedly resorting to pressure and threats,” said Lin, according to Bloomberg.
- PayPal’s (NASDAQ:PYPL) crypto partner Paxos accidentally minted $300 million of PayPal’s stablecoin PYUSD as the result of a technical error, according to CNBC.
Paxos confirmed the error in a post on X Wednesday afternoon.
“At 3:12 PM EST, Paxos mistakenly minted excess PYUSD as part of an internal transfer. Paxos immediately identified the error and burned the excess PYUSD. This was an internal technical error. There is no security breach. Customer funds are safe. We have addressed the root cause,” Paxos said in its post.
In a report on the error, CNBC said that crypto watchers spotted the mistake when they observed a huge injection of the stablecoin on Etherscan. The error appeared to be corrected about 20 minutes later.
- The U.S. Department of Defense has cancelled a tender for a cobalt supply contract worth up to $500 million.
The DOD had put out the tender in August, requesting offers for up to 7,500 tons over five years of the metal, which is used in rechargeable batteries, weapon systems, and munitions, according to Bloomberg.
“There are outstanding issues with the Statement of Work that need resolution before offers may be solicited. Upon resolution, solicitation will be re-issued with a new opening and closing date,” according to a DOD post on SAM.gov.