What Wall Street CEOs Want from Trump-Xi Summit

The combined net worth of the more than a dozen US CEOs who joined President Donald Trump for a two-day summit in China that kicks off today is nearly $1 trillion. Yes, $688 billion of that is Elon Musk’s, but any beggar would happily settle for Jensen Huang’s estimated $183 billion fortune.

Most of the total comes from the tech powerhouses represented: In addition to Tesla’s Musk and Nvidia’s Huang, there’s “Tim Apple,” as Trump once called Apple CEO Tim Cook. However, a mighty Wall Street contingent featuring the likes of Stephen Blackstone, Larry BlackRock, Jane Citigroup and David Goldman Sachs is there, too.

Just One Ask

The thing Wall Street wants from this week’s gathering is more obvious than 7-foot-6 former NBA star Yao Ming at China’s National People’s Congress: less uncertainty. Last year, Trump’s global trade war heated up to Sichuan levels of spicy, as he at one point imposed 140% tariffs on Chinese imports. China responded by blocking exports of rare earth minerals, crucial to all kinds of advanced manufacturing, to the US.

Citigroup, which maintains a major institutional presence in the country, said on an earnings call in February that major global clients have been put “in a very challenging environment” because of geopolitical factors including US-China relations. 

Goldman Sachs, in its March annual report, echoed the sentiment, saying its business “may be adversely affected by disruptions in the global economy caused by escalating tensions between the US and China.” Predictions markets are betting these firms, all of whose CEOs are in Beijing with Trump, will get the sort of stabilizing news they want, while other Wall Street firms go in with more bespoke hopes:

• As of late Wednesday, traders on Kalshi placed the odds Trump will announce the extension of an October tariff truce with Beijing at 80%. That deal saw China pause its export controls on rare earths while the US halved the tariffs Trump levied over fentanyl. 
• Of particular note, payments giant Visa, whose CEO Ryan McInerney is on the trip, has been waiting nine years for Chinese regulators to approve its application for a domestic payments license. Rival Mastercard, whose President Michael Miebach will also be there, was approved in 2020 (the same year as Amex) and, according to Reuters, wants US officials to press China to allow it to take a bigger stake in its joint venture with Chinese partner NetsUnion.

Car Problems: The share of China’s foreign direct investment made in North America has plummeted from 27% a decade ago to 2.6% last year, but Trump told the Detroit Economic Club in January he would welcome Chinese companies, especially automakers, manufacturing on US soil if it meant creating American jobs. Members of Congress, however, both Republican and Democrat, cautioned him against entertaining any such notion ahead of this week’s summit.