Chinese Deals & Jet Fuel: U.S. Ambassador to China & RyanAir CEO 5/18/26

Squawk Pod

CNBC

Business News, News, Investing, Business

4.2 • 543 Ratings

🗓️ 18 May 2026

⏱️ 40 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

After President Trump’s meeting with President Xi in Beijing, U.S. Ambassador to China David Perdue, who was in the room with both leaders, discusses the trade agreements between nations and America’s stance on Taiwan. The largest low-cost air carrier on the European continent RyanAir says it’s well hedged amid a global jet fuel crunch, but CEO Michael O’Leary warns that other airlines may face pricing challenges through the end of the summer. Plus, there’s a run on Swatch watches, and Berkshire Hathaway’s 13F is out, offering a peek at Greg Abel’s first decisions as CEO. David Perdue - 16:28 Michael O’Leary - 33:33 In this episode: Joe Kernen, @JoeSquawk Andrew Ross Sorkin, @andrewrsorkin Katie Kramer, @Kramer_Katie

Transcript

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0:00.0	Bring in show music, please.
0:04.3	Hi, I'm CNBC producer Katie Kramer.
0:07.2	Today on Squawk Pod.
0:09.9	Back from China, where are the deals?
0:12.3	The White House touts a few trade agreements
0:14.2	following President Trump's two-day summit,
0:16.3	but Taiwan and a potential arms deal there
0:19.0	appear to remain undecided.
0:21.2	What is our policy? Would we?
0:23.9	A man in the room for the meetings with Xi Jinping, the U.S. ambassador to China, David Perdue,
0:29.0	joins us. President Trump and President Xi have a strong relationship. The conversations were
0:34.4	really quite consequential. They were cordial but candid.
0:38.6	It's set up to be the summer of jet fuel fear. Will higher costs cancel Americans' vacations
0:44.8	or worse? Ryanair, CEO Michael O'Leary, on the global industry. If oil prices remain up at these
0:51.8	levels, if the straight-of-hore moves remains closed until, say, September, October,
0:55.6	there's going to be airline bankruptcies in Europe like you had spirit over here in the States.
1:00.6	Plus all the rest of today's news that got us squawking from whale watching to swatch watches to AI in the markets.
1:08.2	Is it frothy? There's some froth.
1:16.5	It's Monday, May 18th, 2026. Squawk Pod begins right now.
1:25.5	Stand and under five. Three, two, one, up in Andrew. Two. Two. One. Up and Andrew. Two. Good morning and welcome to Squackbox. Right here on CNBC. We're live at the NASDAQ Market Side in Times Square. I'm Andrew Ross Sorkin along with Joe Kernan on this Monday morning. Becky's off. Treasury yields, the 10 years at 4.5, the two years sitting just at about 4. I should tell you that bond yields ended last week at their highest levels, I believe, in quite some time.
1:46.8	I think it was a full year.
1:49.1	Energy, by the way, we should show you what's going on there.
	...

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