Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has played a balancing act trying to reassure nervous investors that the U.S. would maintain its global leadership role while staying true to the Trump administration’s skepticism of multilateral banking organizations.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Wednesday that he believes that excessively high tariffs between the U.S. and China will have to come down before trade negotiations can proceed but said President Donald Trump would not unilaterally cut tariffs on Chinese imports.

Stock futures were pointing to losses on Thursday, with investors still trying to make sense of the U.S.-China trade war after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent signaled that Washington and Beijing were yet to start negotiations on tariffs.