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MANILA (Reuters) – U.S Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Friday that the world should be “eyes wide open” about the risks of using Chinese technology, and that there could be problems for American firms operating in certain places where Huawei equipment was deployed.

Pompeo was asked during a visit to Manila about the prospect of the Philippines using Huawei 5G technology in future as it seeks to modernize outdated telecoms infrastructure.

“Our task has been to share with the world the risks associated with that technology: the risks to the Philippine people, the risk to Philippine security, the risk that America may not be able to operate in certain environments if there is Huawei technology adjacent to that,” he told a news conference.

“We want to make sure that the world has their eyes wide open as to the risks of having that technology to be part of infrastructure, backbone or networks.”

The U.S. government has been piling pressure on Huawei, the world’ s biggest telecommunications equipment maker and trying to prevent American firms from buying Huawei routers and switches, as well as advising allies to do the same.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday warned he could walk away from a trade deal with China if it were not good enough, even as his economic advisers touted “fantastic” progress toward an agreement to end a dispute with the Asian country.

The United States and China have imposed tit-for-tat tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars worth of each others’ goods, roiling financial markets, disrupting manufacturing supply chains and shrinking U.S. farm exports.

“I am always prepared to walk,” Trump said in Hanoi, after cutting short a summit meeting with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un that failed to reach a nuclear deal. “I’m never afraid to walk from a deal. And I would do that with China, too, if it didn’t work out.”

The United States had been poised to hike tariffs on some $200 billion in Chinese imports to 25 percent from 10 percent after Friday if no deal was reached by then. But on Sunday, Trump announced that he would delay the hike in duties due to progress in negotiations with Chinese officials last week.

Since then, Trump administration officials have offered few details on the discussions.

“The progress last week was fantastic,” White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said on CNBC on Thursday, noting that U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer read Chinese officials “the riot act” in talks last week.

“We are heading toward a remarkable, historic deal,” he added.

Kevin Hassett, chairman of the White House’s Council of Economic Advisers, was similarly upbeat, saying on Fox Business Network that Lighthizer and Chinese Vice Premier Liu He drafted “sketches of an agreement on intellectual property theft and trade … that really makes sense for both parties.”

“If you look at the paperwork we’ve got and the line-by-lines that people have sketched out, it’s just about as favorable as you could hope for,” Hassett said, adding that final details would need to be approved by Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping at a meeting at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.

CONTRASTING VIEWS
Lighthizer, Trump’s chief trade negotiator, on Wednesday was more cautious about the negotiations in testimony to the House Ways and Means Committee, saying much more work needed to be done to nail down an agreement and it was too soon to predict the outcome of talks.

He also said the United States would need to maintain the threat of tariffs on Chinese imports for years, even if the two countries strike a deal, a gloomy prospect for companies seeking to end trade war uncertainty.

Lighthizer had said the United States is seeking an agreement that prohibits China from competitively devaluing its currency as part of trade talks, following past manipulations of the yuan.

Adding more details, Kudlow said China would need to report any intervention in the foreign exchange market.

“The documents are very clear: I mean, even things like the currency deal … got no manipulation; they’ve got to report any interventions in the market. That’s part of it,” Kudlow said.

His comments came as the United States won a World Trade Organization ruling that China’s domestic price supports for wheat and rice were excessive and violated WTO obligations.

Trump administration officials have frequently criticized the Geneva-based WTO for its inability to rein in China’s trade practices and non-market economic policies.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday passed a bill that would expand background checks for gun sales to include firearm purchases at gun shows and over the internet, a measure likely to face Senate and White House opposition.

The background check bill, which was approved by a 240-190 vote, is the first gun control measure taken up by Democrats since they regained control of the House in the 2018 congressional midterm elections.

The bill is likely to face opposition when it goes to the Republican-controlled Senate, however. It would also need President Donald Trump’s signature in order to become law.

The White House said on Monday that Trump’s advisers would recommend the president veto the legislation because it would apply “burdensome requirements” that are “incompatible with the Second Amendment’s guarantee of an individual right to keep arms.”

Trump has previously indicated he supported efforts to extend background checks to all gun sales.

HANOI (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday he had walked away from a nuclear deal at his summit with Kim Jong Un because of unacceptable demands from the North Korean leader to lift punishing U.S.-led sanctions.

Trump said two days of talks in the Vietnamese capital Hanoi had made good progress in building relations and on the key issue of denuclearization, but it was important not to rush into a bad deal.

“It was all about the sanctions,” Trump said at a news conference after the talks were cut short. “Basically, they wanted the sanctions lifted in their entirety, and we couldn’t do that.”

The United Nations and the United States ratcheted up sanctions on North Korea when the reclusive state undertook a series of nuclear and ballistic missile tests in 2017, cutting off its main sources hard cash.

Both Trump and Kim left the venue of their talks, the French-colonial-era Metropole hotel, without attending a planned lunch together.

GULF STREAM, Fla. (Reuters) – In November 2017, Harry Sargeant III, a wealthy American businessman, flew to Venezuela to see about buying some oil.

Sargeant, the former finance chairman of the Florida Republican Party, was looking to purchase a New Jersey asphalt plant that needed a steady supply of the heavy crude that Venezuela has in abundance.

Within a year, Sargeant had inked an attractive oilfield agreement to help raise plummeting crude production in Venezuela, whose economy is in a free fall. A new Delaware company called Erepla Services LLC, of which Sargeant is a shareholder, would rehabilitate three troubled oilfields in exchange for almost half the revenue.

Sargeant’s timing for the venture turned out to be lousy: On January 28, just weeks after news broke of Sargeant’s partnership with Petroleos de Venezuela SA (PDVSA), the U.S. government unleashed tough new sanctions banning Americans from working with Venezuela’s state-run oil firm. It was part of a wider U.S. pressure campaign to topple Maduro’s government.

Sargeant acknowledges sanctions have derailed his deal.

Still his willingness to do business with a ruler the Trump administration seeks to undermine reflects a long tradition of oil companies making deals with disfavored governments around the world. Prior to the January sanctions, the United States had been the biggest cash-paying customer for Venezuela’s oil, importing more than 500,000 barrels daily.

The intended partnership also highlights Venezuela’s desperation. With Western oil majors steering clear of new investment there, the country has turned to China and Russia as well as upstart firms like Erepla. Maduro has long sought an end to what he calls an economic war being waged against his government by the United States. His embrace of an American company belies his public denunciations of Trump.

The Venezuelan government and PDVSA did not respond to emails requesting comment about the state oil company’s deal with Erepla or Sargeant’s version of events.

TOKYO (Reuters) – Asian stocks fell on Thursday as investors dialed back some of their recent optimism about a Sino-China trade deal while news that the U.S.-North Korean summit in Hanoi was ending early rattled confidence late in the trading day.

The White House said on Thursday U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un did not reach an agreement at the end of two days of meetings but had constructive discussions on denuclearization.

South Korea’s KOSPI finished 1.7 percent lower, extending earlier losses just before the market close after both leaders brought forward the schedule of their second day of summit talks in Vietnam by almost two hours.

Spreadbetters expected European stocks to follow Asia’s lead and open lower, with Britain’s FTSE falling 0.3 percent, Germany’s DAX shedding 0.2 percent and France’s CAC losing 0.25 percent.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan lost 0.45 percent, extending earlier declines.

The dollar held onto its gains from Wednesday, supported by higher bond yields.

The Shanghai Composite Index fell 0.7 percent as more weak data weighed on sentiment. Figures released on Thursday showed factory activity contracted for the third straight month in February as export orders fell to the lowest level since the global crisis.

That added to worries about the U.S.-China trade war.

U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said on Wednesday it was too early to predict an outcome in talks between Washington and Beijing.

U.S. issues with China are “too serious” to be resolved with promises from Beijing to purchase more U.S. goods and any deal between the two countries must include a way to ensure commitments are met, he told U.S. lawmakers.

“Lighthizer’s comments trimmed a bit of the trade resolution hopes which had grown recently, and equities are exposed to some downward pressure,” said Masahiro Ichikawa, senior strategist at Sumitomo Mitsui Asset Management.

“As for tensions between India and Pakistan, it is a concern. But it remains a regional topic for the moment and the overall market impact has been limited thus far.”

Global equities scaled a four-month high earlier this week helped by upbeat expectations towards U.S.-China trade talks, before pulling back after Lighthizer spoke.

In currency markets, the dollar index against a basket of six major currencies stood little changed at 96.110.

The index had edged up 0.1 percent on Wednesday, pulling away from a three-week trough as Treasury yields rose ahead of the release of U.S. fourth-quarter GDP data later on Thursday.

The dollar dipped 0.15 percent to 110.815 yen.

The yen often attracts demand in times of political tensions and market turmoil. It showed little response to data showing Japan’s factory output posted the biggest decline in a year in January.

The euro was a steady at $.1.1372 after slipping 0.15 percent on Wednesday.

The pound stood within distance of a near eight-month peak of $1.3351 reached the previous day. Sterling has rallied this week as investors ramped up bets that a no-deal Brexit was less likely and that Britain’s departure from the European Union would be delayed.

U.S. crude oil futures slipped 0.2 percent to $56.84 per barrel, losing a bit of steam after surging 2.5 percent on Wednesday.

Crude rallied after U.S. inventories unexpectedly plummeted and as Saudi Arabia brushed aside comments from U.S. President Donald Trump seeking to keep oil prices from climbing.

LONDON (Reuters) – European stock markets opened lower on Wednesday after fresh hostilities erupted between India and Pakistan, causing Asian assets to fall and pushing investors into safe havens such as the yen.

After about an hour of trading, the pan-European STOXX 600 was down about 0.5 percent. All the main regional indexes were in the red. U.S. stock futures for the S&P 500 were down 0.1 percent.

Earlier, Pakistan said it had carried out air strikes in Indian-controlled Kashmir and shot down two Indian jets in its own airspace.

Indian and Pakistan bonds and currencies fell and MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was last down 0.15 percent as the threat of conflict between the nuclear-armed neighbors grew.

The heightened geopolitical risks helped assets considered safer than stocks, such as the Japanese yen, which gained against the dollar.

The dollar itself hovered around a three-week lows after Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell reiterated on Tuesday the Fed had shifted to a more “patient” policy approach regarding changes to interest rates.

Also in the currency market, the British pound continued to rise after Prime Minister Theresa May offered lawmakers a chance to vote on delaying Brexit.

Sterling last traded at $1.3274, having risen to $1.3288 on Tuesday, its highest levels in five months.

Oil prices rose after a report that U.S. crude inventories had declined and as producer club OPEC seemed to stick to its supply cuts despite pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump.

International Brent crude futures LCOc1 were at $65.32 per barrel, up 0.11 cents, or 0.21 percent from their last close.

Gold was down 0.17 percent at $1,326.24.

HANOI (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump hailed North Korea’s “awesome” potential on Wednesday and said its leader, Kim Jong Un, wanted to do something great, hours before they were due to meet to try to break a stalemate over the North’s nuclear weapons.

Despite little progress on his goal of ridding North Korea of its weapons programs, Trump appeared to be betting on his personal relationship with North Korea’s young leader, and the economic incentive after 70 years of hostility between their countries.

“Vietnam is thriving like few places on earth. North Korea would be the same, and very quickly, if it would denuclearize,” Trump said on Twitter, the morning after he arrived in the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi for a second summit with Kim.

“The potential is AWESOME, a great opportunity, like almost none other in history, for my friend Kim Jong Un. We will know fairly soon – Very Interesting!”

He later said he was looking forward to the talks with Kim and hoped for success. “He wants to do something great,” he said.

Trump and Kim will meet at the Metropole hotel at 6:30 p.m. (1130 GMT) for a 20-minute, one-on-one chat followed by a dinner with aides, the White House said.

Trump would be accompanied by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney. Kim will be joined by his top envoy, Kim Yong Chol, and Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho.

ISLAMABAD/NEW DELHI (Reuters) – Pakistan carried out airstrikes and shot down two Indian jets on Wednesday, Pakistani officials said, a day after Indian warplanes struck inside Pakistan for the first time since a war in 1971, prompting leading powers to urge both sides to show restraint.

Both countries have ordered airstrikes over the last two days, the first time in history that two nuclear armed powers have done so, while ground forces have exchanged fire in more than a dozen locations.

Tensions have been elevated since a suicide car bombing by Pakistan-based militants in Indian-controlled Kashmir killed at least 40 Indian paramilitary police on Feb. 14, but the risk of conflict rose dramatically on Tuesday when India launched an air strike on what it said was a militant training base.

The attack targeted the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), the group that claimed credit for the suicide attack. India said a large number of JeM fighters had been killed, but Pakistani officials said the strike was a failure and inflicted no casualties.

Indian air force planes strayed into Pakistani airspace on Wednesday after Pakistan carried out airstrikes in Indian-occupied Kashmir, said Major General Asif Ghafoor, a spokesman for the Pakistan armed forces.

“PAF shot down two Indian aircrafts inside Pakistani airspace,” he said in a tweet.

One of the aircraft fell on India’s side of Kashmir, while the second came down in Pakistani-held territory and its pilot was captured, he added.