What happened
According to President Trump's U.S. trade representative, the latest round of 10% tariffs to be applied to Chinese imports may not arrive as scheduled in September. Some goods on the $300 billion in Chinese products initially targeted may not get hit with tariffs until Dec. 15, while others may be excluded entirely. The news is lifting stocks all across the market today. Shares of General Electric (GE -3.19%), for example, were up 5% as of noon EDT. And tariff news isn't the only reason.
Image source: Getty Images.
So what
In addition to benefiting from general elation in the market today, General Electric shares are getting a lift from some other China-specific news. On Tuesday, GE announced that it has secured two new 6F.03 gas turbine orders with China's Guangdong Lee & Man Paper Manufacturing, and with China Huadian Corporation (CHD).
Lee & Man will buy two of the turbines for its gas-fired co-generation plant in Guangdong Province. CHD will buy two more for its phase 1 gas-fired co-generation project in Hubei Province.
Now what
GE did not disclose the price for its gas turbines, nor the value of either contract. I think it's probably safe to say, though, that the sales from the four gas turbines mentioned in GE's press release probably don't amount to anything like the $4-billion-plus increase in market capitalization GE got from today's rising stock price.
Still, the sales should tend to please the president, and could go a ways toward smoothing things over in the trade war -- which would not only be good for stock markets in general, but could also make further sales by GE to China easier in the future.
