The Trump Administration gave markets an early Christmas present, when it announced Tuesday that it will delay planned tariffs on a subset of the $300 billion in imports that had been announced Aug 1.
While the news caused stock markets to rally — with the S&P 500 index SPX, -2.93% , Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, -3.05% and Nasdaq Composite Index COMP, -3.02% all gaining at least 1.4% Tuesday — investors should be interpreting this not as an easing of trade tensions with China, but as a concession to the U.S. consumer a critically important driver of the current economic expansion and bull market.