The phone call, which China underscored in Xi’s readout was at Trump’s request, comes amid increasing tensions over Trump’s trade and tariff policy, as China retaliates with export controls on several rare earth minerals and magnets critical to the U.S.’s automotive, defense, and energy industries.

Markets rose after the call on the notion that Trump would back down on the tariffs when they become too disruptive, but ended lower. “From an investor perspective in the short-term because there’s the view he will flip on his worst impulses,