Trump says 'so much for being mr nice guy' after china allegedly violates trade deal

US Stocks wavered on Friday, but the dollar mostly gained, after Trump put US-China trade tensions back on the boil. His post came hours after US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said trade

talks with China aimed at putting to bed sky-high mutual tariffs -- currently suspended -- were "a bit stalled". The development risks renewed trade pugilism between the

world's two biggest economies. "If President Trump does slap tariffs back on Chinese imports to the US... we may see demand for US assets, and the dollar, severely impaired by a

chaotic and undiplomatic approach to trade policy," said Kathleen Brooks, research director at XTB. Investors, though, appeared largely inured to Trump's now-familiar cycle of

making dramatic trade threats then retreating, with many more focused on economic data. New York indices slid at the start of trading, but London and Frankfurt were up, while Paris dipped.

Asian share markets had already closed down, before Trump's latest broadside against Beijing was published. A key US inflation indicator released Friday showed April core price rises

had slowed to 2.1 percent, milder than expected. That could support arguments for the Federal Reserve to cut US rates -- though analysts warned that the inflationary effects of Trump's

tariffs were yet to come and could cause the Fed to maintain its watch-and-wait stance. "The true weight of these policies is likely to emerge more fully in the months ahead,"

cautioned FOREX.com market analyst Fawad Razaqzada. Markets were also assessing the impact of a US court ruling that invalidated most of Trump's sweeping tariffs -- though an appeals

court suspended that order and the White House said the tariffs goal would be pursued one way or another. "The ruling didn't mean that all tariffs were off the table, it could

affect trade negotiations going forward," noted David Morrison, senior market analyst at Trade Nation, adding it only injected "ongoing uncertainty surrounding trade policy".

Stephen Innes, of SPI Asset Management, said the result was "a legal limbo... the kind that keeps traders awake at night". The dollar gained against the euro and most other major

currencies -- except for the yen, which strengthened after Tokyo inflation data came in above forecasts, fuelling expectations that Japan could raise interest rates in July. Interest rates

were also in focus in the eurozone, after official data showed inflation there hovering around the European Central Bank's two-percent target. Consumer prices in top EU economy Germany

showed a 2.1 percent rise in May -- the same as the previous month -- while they fell in Spain, to 1.9 percent, and in Italy, to 1.7 percent. The ECB looks set to lower interest rates again

on Thursday. Oil prices were down on Friday, ahead of a Saturday meeting of eight key OPEC+ members to decide production quotas for July, with some analysts saying the cartel could make a

larger-than-expected supply hike. _(With inputs from AFP)_