Trump’s China trip comes with a $16T escort

Big entourage, bigger stakes

Trump’s visit to China isn’t just about flags, handshakes, and photo ops. He showed up with a CEO entourage tied to roughly $16.4 trillion in market cap, which is basically Wall Street saying, “Please let us in the room too.”

The ask: open the door

On Truth Social, Trump said he’d ask Xi Jinping to “open up China” so U.S. business leaders could “work their magic.” Translation: less friction, fewer barriers, and maybe a little less of the ongoing trade-war hangover.

Why markets care

This is where the plot gets real for investors:

• Nvidia is already at all-time highs, but it still has to navigate China chip restrictions like it’s trying to drive a Ferrari through a toll booth.
• Apple and Tesla both have huge stakes in Chinese demand, supply chains, or both.
• Boeing, Micron, Qualcomm, Visa, Mastercard, Goldman Sachs, BlackRock, Blackstone — you get the idea. If China loosens up, plenty of U.S. mega-caps could breathe easier.

The fine print

The trip comes as Washington and Beijing are still duking it out over tariffs, rare earths, AI competition, Taiwan, and market access. So yes, the optics are glamorous. But the actual outcome could range from meaningful progress to the diplomatic equivalent of “we’ll circle back.”

Big picture: when the world’s two biggest economic powers start negotiating with a $16 trillion shopping cart in the room, your portfolio tends to notice.