Truce fizzles as U.S.-China trade tensions return to full boil

NEW YORK (AP) — For months, bubbling trade tensions between China and the U.S. seemed to calm to a simmer, with words like “thaw” and “truce” swapped in for warnings of economic “war.”

Now, hostilities appear to be returning to full boil.

A series of tit-for-tat moves this week by the two superpowers has thrust trade hostilities back in the global spotlight, roiling markets and raising alarms of what might come next.

“Let’s poke the bear again,” economist Aleksandar Tomic, an associate dean at Boston College, said of the renewed sparring. “Let’s stir the hornet’s nest.”

A look at where things stand in the U.S.-China trade standoff:

Signs of trade-war escalation roil markets

Tensions between China and the U.S. transcend any presidency or political party. But Donald Trump’s return to t