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U.S. said to delay China tariffs, companies find their Huawei loophole, and bitcoin surges. Peace talks The U.S. is willing to suspend the next round of tariffs on an additional $300 billion of Chinese imports as both sides prepare to resume trade negotiations, according to people familiar with the plan. Latest calculations from Bloomberg Economics show the cost from an escalating trade war could hit $1.2 trillion by the end of 2021. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, speaking on CNBC this morning, tried to sound upbeat on the prospects for a deal, saying that 90% of an agreement was already in place. Stock futures rose and Treasuries fell in the wake of his comments.  Huawei bypass  U.S. technology companies have resumed selling certain products to Huawei Technologies Co. after their lawyers found the ban on dealing with the company is less restrictive than originally thought. The loophole comes down to how "American" American tech companies are, with some having the majority of their operations outside the country. Pressure from Congress on the Chinese company is not easing up, with senators voting to cite Huawei as a security risk for the U.S. and its allies.  Sponsored Content by VanEck Expect More from Your Munis with a Tactical Approach How can investors figure out when to be overweight credit or duration, or neither, in their municipal bond exposure? Learn More.   Bitcoin surge The original virtual currency surged as much at 14% this morning, trading over $12,900 at one point before easing to $12,520 by 5:45 a.m. Eastern Time – still a $1,150 gain for the session. While the very rapid run-up in the value of the digital token has echoes of the surge and crash of 2017, bulls point to the renewed interest in cryptos from  major companies like Facebook Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. as the catalyst. It's probably worth nothing that neither Facebook or JPMorgan are investing in Bitcoin, but instead are launching what will likely be Bitcoin's biggest competitors.  Markets mixed Overnight the MSCI Asia Pacific Index slipped 0.4% while Japan's Topix index closed 0.6% lower as investors continue to worry about global growth risks. In Europe, the Stoxx 600 Index was 0.1% higher by 5:45 a.m. with stocks in the region reversing earlier losses in the wake of Steven Mnuchin's comments. S&P 500 futures gained more than 0.5%, the 10-year Treasury yield was at 2.026% and gold dropped from its recent highs.  Coming up… At 8:30 a.m. U.S. durable goods orders for May are published, with whole inventories data due at the same time. It's only 16 months to the next U.S. presidential election, so it's high time the debates kick off; today sees the first of them in Miami where Elizabeth Warren will be the only one of the top-polling Democratic candidates taking the stage. In earnings today we hear from Blackberry Ltd. and Rite Aid Corp. What we've been reading This is what's caught our eye over the last 24 hours. Here's how climate change is viewed around the world. U.S. prosecutors join multinational crackdown in insider trading. Mueller agrees to testify before two House panels in July. Robots may displace 20 million manufacturing jobs by 2030. The swap spread curve's transformation is complete. Blazing heatwave forces Germany to limit autobahn speeds. Why aren't the plants around Chernobyl dying of cancer? And finally, here's what Joe's interested in this morning Yesterday here I was talking about how with the recent rise in gold, the last people I was interested in hearing from was gold bugs. If you never change your mind, you probably don't have anything interesting to say about the current (or any) market situation. One person who's revised their view on the yellow metal is Marc Chandler of Bannockburn Global Forex. He argued on TV yesterday that part of the bull case comes from the emerging "second cold war" between the U.S. and China creating a geopolitical bid for the precious metal. He also noted, more straightforwardly, that as positive interest rates disappear, then the implied cost of carrying gold is falling. Speaking of changing tack, we also talked on TV yesterday with Bloomberg's own macro strategist Mark Cudmore, who has been generally bullish on markets and the economy since 2011. He has flipped bearish, citing deteriorating data, unrealistic growth expectations among economists, and a general inability of central banks to reflate much more. My colleague Tracy Alloway and I are going to be talking to Mark soon for our podcast (subscribe here), so you'll have a chance to hear his full thesis, but the bottom line is it's good to always be on the lookout for smart people who have recently changed their minds. 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