Doubts on the rise about the US-China ceasefire - Reuters

As reported by Reuters, fresh concerns are on the rise surrounding the temporary US-China truce that was struck over the weekend.

Key quotes

The temporary freeze on further hostilities in the trade war between the United States and China had sparked a global rally in equity markets on Monday, pushing MSCI’s all-country world index up 1.3 percent. But even before the trading day ended, major U.S. indexes pulled back from intraday highs as investors pondered unresolved issues between the two countries.

Already there was confusion over when the 90-day period would start. A White House official said it started on Dec. 1. Earlier, White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow told reporters it would start on Jan. 1.

Moreover, none of the commitments that U.S. officials said had been given by China, including reducing its 40 percent tariffs on autos, were agreed to in writing and specifics had yet to be hammered out.

“The fear across global markets is that this is just a short term relief rally and we will find ourselves back where we were a few weeks ago and staring down the barrel of a long term global growth slow down,” Nick Twidale, Sydney-based analyst at Rakuten Securities Australia said in a note.

“In the short term it seems we may find investors once again back to trading sentiment fluctuations as news hits the markets piecemeal on trade agreement progress.”