U.S. President Donald Trump announced a one-year agreement with China covering rare earths and critical minerals, while also halving fentanyl-related tariffs on Beijing (from 20% to 10%), effective immediately, following his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in South Korea on Thursday.
Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, Trump described the meeting as “amazing,” saying “a lot of decisions were made.” He added that the rare earths deal will be reviewed and renegotiated annually, and that tariffs on Chinese exports will drop to 47% from 57%.
Trump also said he discussed sales of Nvidia (NVDA) chips to China with Jinping, and that it’s up to Beijing to continue conversations with the $5 trillion company about access to the world’s largest semiconductor market.
But discussions Thursday did not focus on sales to China of Nvidia’s latest Blackwell accelerators, Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One. “We’re not talking about the Blackwell,” he said.
Trump also confirmed plans to visit China in April, with Xi expected to make a return visit to the U.S. at a later date. The meeting—their first in six years—lasted one hour and forty minutes.
Ahead of the talks, both leaders struck a conciliatory tone. Trump referred to Xi as “an old friend” and emphasized their “very good relationship,” while Xi said China’s economic ambitions would not conflict with Trump’s goal to “Make America Great Again.”
The meeting comes amid heightened tensions between the world’s two largest economies, with recent disputes over export controls, technology restrictions, and trade tariffs. U.S. officials had signaled hopes for progress on issues including fentanyl exports, TikTok’s divestiture from ByteDance, and rare earth supply chains.
In a possible sign of easing tensions, China purchased its first cargoes of U.S. soybeans in months, according to a Reuters report on Wednesday.
Major stock market indexes to watch: (SP500), (DJI), (COMP:IND). Here are some ETFs that track the benchmark S&P 500 index (SP500): (SPY), (VOO), (IVV), (RSP), (SSO), (UPRO), (SH), (SDS), and (SPXU).
Potentially relevant rare earth stocks: (MP), (USAR), (TMC), (CRML), (UUUU), (WWR), (UAMY), (TMQ), (LAC), (NMG), (NB), (METC), (UEC), (CCJ), (DNN), (NXE), (OTCPK:LYSDY), (OTCPK:LYSCF)
ETFs: (NYSEARCA:REMX), (NYSEARCA:LIT), (ILIT), (BATT), (URA), (NLR), (URNM)
ETFs linked to China: (NYSEARCA:KWEB), (NASDAQ:PGJ), (NYSEARCA:CQQQ), (NYSEARCA:FXI), (NYSEARCA:GXC), (NASDAQ:MCHI), (NYSEARCA:FLCH), (BATS:CNYA), (NYSEARCA:ASHR), and (NYSEARCA:YINN).