Stocks Catch A Bid On Report Trump’s Threat Was Improvised

The S&P has caught a bid, and is now down just 0.1%, with the Nasdaq similarly wiping out most early losses, following a report that contrary to previous speculation that Trump’s bombastic “fire and fury” statement was a coordinated and pre-agreed upon indication of intent from the entire White House, it was in fact improvised. As the NYT writes, “President Trump delivered his ‘fire and fury’ threat to North Korea on Tuesday with arms folded, jaw set and eyes flitting on what appeared to be a single page of talking points set before him on the conference table at his New Jersey golf resort. The piece of paper, as it turned out, was a fact sheet on the opioid crisis he had come to talk about, and his ominous warning to Pyongyang was entirely improvised.”
The NYT also adds that “in discussions with advisers beforehand, he had not run the specific language by them”, which has prompted a modest relief rally as it now appears that Trump’s widely reported statement was just another ad hoc outburst – in line with his daily Twitter rants – and one which will likely be moderated in future appearances after feedback from Trump’s advisors.
To be sure, in the hours since, the president’s advisers have already sought to calm the situation, with Rex Tillerson assuring Americans that they ‘should sleep at night’ without worrying about an imminent war, as we reported earlier.

This post was published at Zero Hedge on Aug 9, 2017.