Welcome to a new day of suspense. I was reading this article last night, and it suggested an 85% chance that the threat of big new tariffs was a total bluff. Indeed, the likelihood of the “risk off” kind of event that would thrill me is a mere 15%.
![likelihood](https://slopeofhope.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/likelihood-640x524.png)
From last night’s post, nearly 70% of Slopers seem equally doubtful that the Trump administration will stick to his guns:
![poll](https://slopeofhope.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/poll-640x333.png)
My official opinion is “I dunno”. The past decade has been such an abusive nightmare for the bears, at this point I wouldn’t be surprised if both sides announced it was all just a big gag, and they had already signed a 0% tariffs deal for the next half-millennium.
Of course, I would be over-the-moon if, as Dutch predicts, Trump sticks to his guns on this one. As I’m typing this, all we’ve done is unwound that ridiculous end-of-day ramp we had yesterday near the close (thanks, Mnuchin!) and at this point are simply counting down the hours until midnight on Thursday. It’s going to be quite a show.
![esupdown](https://slopeofhope.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/esupdown-640x365.png)
And just in case you think Chairman Xi gives a shit about Trump’s election prospects, just remember this fact:
![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/_-EvkLedgZg/maxresdefault.jpg)