Charles Gasparino opines as follows:
"Stock market is pricing in Trump's tariffs as one big bowl of nothing; that he and Bessent will negotiate them down to a meaningless level. If that's the case, Trump would have wasted months of political capital and our trade relations are back to square one, though the economy dodges a bullet. But even worse: If the market is somehow misreading Trump or not fully factoring the extent of his tariffs and what they will do to the economy in terms of inflation or maybe stagflation. I saw this misread in the run up to the 2008 financial crisis. Recall how the stock market hit then historic highs in Nov. 2007, just before the bottom fell out early the following year beginning with bond insurers imploding, then subprime lenders, Bear Stearns, Lehman Bros., and all the rest by September. The correction was more pronounced since the initial read was so far off."
Personally, I've yet to see any big breakthrough. And this makes sense. The other countries' trade barriers were erected by politicians to protect/benefit their citizens. Lowering them would be extremely unpopular and could lead to a political overthrow of those in power. Negotiation is kabuki. Instead, we should just quietly raise them a moderate amount and see what happens.