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- Trump gave China’s Xi the first airport tarmac welcome from a U.S. president in roughly six decades, excluding a visit by the Pope.
- Bessent announced the U.S.-China trade truce is extended two months, to Jan. 10.
- Iran’s Pezeshkian goes on the offensive at the UN General Assembly, a day after Trump floated “annihilating” Iran.
- The 10-year Treasury yield jumped to 5.135%, its highest since July 2007, on hot inflation data and hawkish Fed comments.
- Altman and Amodei briefed the UN Security Council, making the opposite case for global cooperation.
Chinese President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Donald Trump attend a meeting on the sidelines during a tour of the Zhongnanhai Garden on May 15, 2026 in Beijing, China. China Pool | Getty Images News | Getty Images
Hello, this is Anniek Bao writing to you from Singapore. Welcome to another edition of CNBC’s Daily Open.
U.S. President Donald Trump gave Chinese leader Xi Jinping a rare welcome at the airport, making him the first American president in roughly six decades to greet a foreign leader on the tarmac, excluding visits by the Pope.
It seems to have worked. The world gets two more months of truce between the world’s two most powerful economies.
What you need to know today
Trump rolled out the red carpet, with children presenting flowers and fighter jets flying overhead, for Xi and his wife, who arrived at Joint Base Andrews outside Washington on Wednesday.
Around the same time, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced a new Jan. 10 deadline for the trade deal struck last year to keep tariffs in check between the world’s two largest economies. “I don’t know whether a bigger deal can be done,” he told Fox News.
Separately, Beijing has reportedly seized the potentially sensitive F-35 stealth aircraft parts diverted to Hong Kong while being sent to the U.S. from Australia, Bloomberg reported.
Over in New York, Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian used his General Assembly address to hold up a photo of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and blamed the U.S. and Israel for stoking global instability and launching illegal attacks on his country’s civilians and infrastructure.
“To defend our country, we do not seek anyone’s permission,” Pezeshkian said at the U.N. “We will not bow our heads and give up the right that is inherently ours. We say it clearly: No nuclear weapons and no limitations to new peaceful nuclear technology.”
U.S. futures sat flat Wednesday. The 10-year Treasury yield surged to 5.135%, its highest level since July 2007, on hot inflation data and hawkish comments from Fed Governor Michael Barr that “further policy adjustments are likely to be needed.”
During the regular trading day, the Dow Industrials fell more than 350 points, or 0.7%, while the S&P 500 slid 0.8%. The Nasdaq Composite lost 1.1% and broke a four-day win streak.
CME FedWatch now prices a roughly 68% chance of another quarter-point hike in October, weeks after the Fed’s decision to lift rates to 3.75%-4.00% — its first hike in three years.
Trump vs. Silicon Valley on AI oversight
A day after Trump told the UN that international AI oversight is a “globalist scheme” and vowed not to “stifle growth of something that will be bigger than the industrial revolution,” OpenAI’s Sam Altman and Anthropic’s Dario Amodei briefed the UN Security Council, pushing the opposite case for global cooperation on AI safety.
“In our history, there have been times where countries who compete and don’t always like each other very much still come together for shared interests and the collective good in the face of a powerful new technology,” Altman said. “We believe this must be one of those times.”
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has floated a U.S.-China alert system for AI incidents with national-security implications, calling it a move “from opaque to more transparency between the number one and the number two AI powers in the world.”
Trump and Xi are likely to discuss artificial intelligence safety amid fears over increasingly capable autonomous models, but chip export controls are off the table entirely, signaling that neither side is in the mood to slow down.
Seoul angles for Trump-Kim rematch
President Lee Jae-myung told Trump at their UN sit-down that Seoul is continuing behind-the-scenes coordination to help create an opening for resuming the “long suspended dialogue” between Pyongyang and Washington.
Trump has reaffirmed his commitment to dialogue with North Korea. The two leaders also touched on nuclear-powered submarines and wartime operational control transfer.
Oil industry braces for diesel export ban
The oil industry warned a diesel export ban will backfire and exacerbate the global fuel crisis as Trump weighs restrictions. The president has floated an export ban on the commodity as political pressure mount for him to curb soaring fuel prices ahead of November midterm elections.
“I’ve said let’s not send out the diesel. We make a lot of diesel,” Trump told reporters Tuesday on the sidelines of the annual United Nations General Assembly. “I’ve called for it within my people. I’ve been talking about it.”
Long battle ahead for shopping bots
Amazon has blocked Meta’s Muse AI shopping assistant just 12 days after launch, accusing it of browsing without identifying itself as an AI agent and improperly storing login credentials — claims Meta disputes.
Meta’s rollout of its Muse AI personal agent has been a big hit with consumers and investors. Experts say the social media giant has a long way to go to turn its early momentum in Muse into a winning product.
“People are going to be very wary,” said Joseph Turow, a professor emeritus at the University of Pennsylvania and an expert on digital media and privacy. “Some people are going to dip their toes into it, and some people are going to accept it for particular companies that they trust.”
— Anniek Bao
And finally…
Here’s what happens to the economy when Treasury yields soar like they are now
Soaring Treasury yields aren’t just bad for the government and its $40 trillion debt. They also threaten to raise borrowing costs, hitting everyone from homeowners to credit card users, while providing limited relief to savers and potential benefits to banks.
Government debt costs leaped higher Wednesday, the product of multiple factors including a fresh report showing higher inflation pressures, surging expectations for a Federal Reserve rate hike in October, and an auction for 5-year notes showing that Treasury demand was weak. Competition from hyperscaler debt issuance also is seen as an aggravating factor.
Yields responded by jumping more than they have in nearly a year and a half, dating back to April 2025 when President Donald Trump first announced so-called reciprocal tariffs against U.S. trading partners. Recent market liquidity efforts pushed by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent have had no impact so far, with rates surging higher despite intensified buyback efforts on longer-dated debt.
— Jeff Cox
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