Defense expert Harry Kazianis (also an Asia Times contributor) wrote at the National Interest on Sunday, “President Trump needs to act fast—and unilaterally—by naming and sanctioning any entities that help launder money for North Korea or assist them in evading past or present sanctions, which could easily amount to billions of dollars. This will undoubtedly impact China and its banks here in the U.S., but is a necessary step to ensure Beijing and Pyongyang know such actions will no longer be tolerated.”
China’s largest bank, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, traded marginally higher in Hong Kong overnight, and was down in US trading by just 0.7% (while Goldman Sachs and Bank of America fell 3%). Other big Chinese banks traded in line with ICBC. China’s big-cap ETF, ticker FXI, was down 1.75%, but that mainly reflects the use of the ETF as a hedging instrument by high-frequency traders.
The implosion of US financial names suggests something quite different at work: concerns about the state of the US economy and the ability of the Trump Administration to deliver a tax package