ORLANDO, Florida, Aug 19 (Reuters) - TRADING DAY

Making sense of the forces driving global markets

By Jamie McGeever, Markets Columnist

Wall Street slumped on Tuesday, dragged down by weakness in

some of the big tech companies that have led the charge to new

highs this year, as investors hunker down ahead of a keynote

speech by Fed Chair Jerome Powell later this week.

More on that below. In my column today I look at the cagey dance

between Donald Trump and Wall Street - the market knows it has

the power to rein in some of the president's policy excesses,

but isn't wielding it. Not yet, anyway.

If you have more time to read, here are a few articles I

recommend to help you make sense of what happened in markets

today.

1. Trump says Putin may not want to make a deal on

Ukraine

2. Switzerland ready to host Putin for any Geneva

peace

talks, minister says

3. S&P affirms 'AA+' credit rating for US, cites

impact of

tariff

4. Trump's interest rate demands put 'fiscal

dominance' in

market spotlight

5. AI will replace most humans, but then what?

Today's Key Market Moves

* STOCKS: Wall Street in the red, with the Nasdaq

leading

the way, down 1.5%. The Dow ekes out a new high of 45,207 points

before easing. Europe gains, Asia and EM in the red.

* SHARES/SECTORS: Intel up 7% after Softbank takes

$2 bln

stake. Nvidia -3.5%, its biggest fall in four months, pushing

the tech sector down nearly 2%.

* FX: Canadian dollar falls 0.5% to 1.3855/$ on soft

inflation data. Brazil's real down 1.2% to 5.50/$, another down

day and its biggest fall in six weeks.

* BONDS: Treasury yields ease from recent highs,

down 4

bps at the long end to flatten the curve. UK 30-year yield hits

new 27-year high, but ends the day lower too.

* COMMODITIES: Oil falls again, WTI crude futures

down

1.7% to lowest close since June 2 at $62.35/bbl.

Today's Talking Points:

* Peace in our time? Investors digested the extraordinary summit

between U.S. President Donald Trump, Ukraine President Volodymyr

Zelenskiy, and a phalanx of European leaders in the White House

on Monday. Did it move the dial much on the prospects of a

Russia-Ukraine ceasefire, or a deal to end the war?

Optimism around Trump's promise of security guarantees for

Ukraine in the future buoyed European markets on Tuesday. But

that evaporated as the U.S. session rolled on, as Trump told Fox

News he thinks Russian President Vladimir Putin may not want to

make a deal after all.

There may be no immediate direct impact on major equity,

bond, or currency markets from the conflict. But prolonged war

on Europe's doorstep, fractured ties between the US and Europe,

and a fickle relationship between Trump and Putin can't be good

in the long term.

* Retail therapy. Some of America's biggest retailers report

second-quarter earnings this week, shining a light on the health

of the U.S. consumer and, by extension, the economy at large.

Home Depot reported on Tuesday; Lowe's, Target, and TJX release

results on Wednesday; and Walmart is out on Thursday.

There are conflicting signals coming from the U.S. consumer. By

some measures, household consumption flat-lined in the first

half of the year, but other indicators show consumer spending is

the biggest contributor to GDP growth. The rich are spending,

but the bottom 50% are struggling.

The S&P 500's consumer discretionary sector is flat this

year, and the consumer staples index is up 6%. Both are lagging

the broader index, which is up 8%, and the IT and communications

sectors, which are both up around 13%.

* Interest rate decisions. The central banks of New Zealand,

Indonesia, and China announce their latest policy decisions on

Wednesday. Two of the three are expected to stand pat, and one

is expected to cut borrowing costs.

The People's Bank of China is expected to keep benchmark

one- and five-year lending rates unchanged for the third

straight month at 3.5% and 5.5%, respectively. Although the

economy needs more support, the central bank may want to explore

structural policies aimed at specific sectors rather than

broad-based monetary easing. For now.

This has helped propel a recovery in the yuan, which was

plumbing 17-year lows at the depths of the "Liberation Day"

tariff turmoil in April. Since then, the PBOC has only lowered

borrowing costs once, by 10 basis points, and has fixed the yuan

higher in 16 of the last 19 weeks.

Markets, Trump in delicate policy dance

U.S. President Donald Trump has faced little opposition in

his drive to rip up the global economic rulebook, whether from

his fellow Republicans, political opponents, or institutional

guardrails. The only exception has been "the market."

But now even investors are holding their fire, enabling more

risk to build up in the financial system.

Wall Street's reaction to Trump's "Liberation Day" tariffs

on April 2 was so ferocious that the president did something he

had rarely done: he backed down.

Trillions of dollars were wiped off the value of U.S. stocks

amid a 10% nosedive from April 3-4. The only two-day selloffs

since the 1930s that were bigger occurred during the Second

World War, "Black Monday" in 1987, the Global Financial Crisis

in 2008, and the pandemic in 2020.

The stock market bottomed out on April 7 after Trump paused

most of his country-specific tariffs. Wall Street has not looked

back since, with the S&P 500 rebounding 35% to an all-time

high.

This episode suggests that "the market" is one of the few

true checks on Trump's apparent pursuit to reshape the U.S. -

and indeed the world - economy.

The only problem is that the president has continued to

pursue unorthodox policies in recent months - including

challenging the independence of the Federal Reserve, firing

statisticians, and slapping tariffs on countries for

non-economic reasons - and investors have failed to tap the

brakes.

FED PUT

The so-called "Trump put" -- the idea that the president

won't let the markets fall too far -- is essentially a funhouse

mirror version of the famous "Fed put," the long-held belief

that, in the event of a crisis, the central bank will step in to

restore stability.

Trump seemingly did just that in April, but it was to clean

up a mess of his own making. And one could argue that it was

actually investors who came to the economy's rescue by putting

pressure on the president to reconsider policies considered

ill-advised by most economists.

Trump and markets are therefore now in a curious dance.

Investors appear to believe that markets can ultimately stop

Trump from pushing the envelope too far on tariffs or other

policies. But as a result, investors are not overreacting - or

reacting at all - to the latest controversies around the Bureau

of Labor Statistics firing, his attacks on Fed Chair Jerome

Powell, his pressure on Intel's CEO to resign, or the outsized

tariffs slapped on Brazil and India.

This, in turn, has powered the markets to new record highs,

emboldening Trump to push the envelope even further.

RISK ON

So even though the market has the power to rein in the

president's economic policy excesses, it's not using it. Why

hasn't the market pushed back?

As the cliche goes, equity investors are paid to be

optimistic. It's in their interest to keep the train hurtling

along, provided there aren't any immediate obstacles to derail

it.

There are, of course, a few pretty large hurdles on the

horizon for the U.S. economy, including the highest tariffs

since the 1930s and some of the biggest budget deficits since

World War II outside of crisis periods. But until these or other

issues present an immediate economic threat, markets can choose

to ignore them.

By under-reacting to Trump's unorthodox policies, markets

may not only delay the day of reckoning but also amplify the

potential impact.

Why? Genuine economic and geopolitical paradigm shifts are

under way, and investors are not pricing in the attendant risk.

Nobody knows what the ultimate impact of these shifts will be,

but we do know that with greater uncertainty comes greater

downside risk.

Yet equity volatility is the lowest it has been this year,

and even in the bond market - not known for its optimism -

volatility is the lowest in three and a half years, while U.S.

corporate bond spreads are the tightest since 1998.

Ultimately, the market is unlikely to call Trump's bluff

until something truly unexpected or extreme hits. In the

meantime, investors can justify this nonchalance by saying that

corporate earnings growth is solid, AI enthusiasm is high,

economic growth remains decent, unemployment is low, and

consumers are still spending.

Wall Street is choosing not to put on the brakes, meaning

this train will continue rolling on. Whether it's heading for a

collision is an open question.

What could move markets tomorrow?

* New Zealand interest rate decision

* Indonesia interest rate decision

* China interest rate decision

* Japan machinery orders (June)

* Japan trade (July)

* UK inflation (July)

* Germany producer price inflation (July)

* Euro zone inflation (July, final)

* U.S. Treasury auctions $16 billion of 20-year bonds

* U.S. earnings, including retailers TJX Companies, Lowe's,

and

Target

Want to receive Trading Day in your inbox every weekday morning?

Sign up for my newsletter here.

Opinions expressed are those of the author. They do not reflect

the views of Reuters News, which, under the Trust Principles, is

committed to integrity, independence, and freedom from bias.