President Donald Trump’s meeting with President Vladimir Putin hasn't been well received in the United States.

President Trump’s equivocation on U.S. intelligence agencies during the news conference with Vladimir Putin has triggered the most intense backlash from Republicans of anything he’s done since winning election in 2016.

At the press conference Trump said: “I have great confidence in my intelligence people, but I will tell you that President Putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today.” He also said he didn’t “see any reason” why Russia would meddle and that the U.S. has acted in “foolish” ways in the past.

A number of prominent Republicans have suggested that backing a former KGB officer in preference to the clearly expressed views of the U.S. intelligence services and the U.S. Senate might not be the best way to make America great again.

“It is the most serious mistake of his presidency and must be corrected immediately,” former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said on Twitter. Gingrich, who’s been a staunch Trump backer and whose wife, Callista, was named by Trump as U.S. ambassador to the Vatican, said Trump needs to clarify his statements.

Does this matter to markets?

Fact is that President Trump did not reverse sanctions on Russia. So, the direct impact is limited.

However, the rather broad opposition to the president’s stance might be seen as having a bearing on the cooperation with Congress in the future. To that extent, if disagreements continue, markets may start to pay more attention.

As of yesterday, it was unclear if Trump’s performance changed the dynamics in the GOP-led Congress, with party leaders couching their disagreements in cautious terms to avoid confronting a president who remains popular with their base less than four months before the midterm elections.

Trump’s schedule for today includes a meeting with members of Congress without specifying the topic or the lawmakers who are being invited.

Fed Chair Jerome Powel Testimony

Fed’s Powell delivers the semi-annual Monetary Policy Report to a Senate committee today (Tuesday) and a House panel tomorrow (Wednesday), and will answer lawmakers’ questions.

The Fed Chair will likely make the case for further tightening in his testimonies, and with markets pondering whether he’ll strike a more hawkish tone than Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari, who wrote in a post on Monday on the website Medium there’s little reason to raise rates much further given anchored inflation expectations and few signs of overheating, “there is little reason to raise rates much further, invert the yield curve, put the brakes on the economy and risk that it does, in fact, trigger a recession.”

Kashkari, who’s previously expressed discomfort with the flattening curve, joins other Fed officials who’ve voiced concerns about precipitating an inversion, which is a phenomenon where short-run rates rise above long-term rates, and a historically reliable recession signal.

“This time is different. I consider those the four most dangerous words in economics,” Kashkari wrote.

US industrial production

US industrial production data for June is due today for which there is some mild interest in the data as an indication as to how President Trump tax (tariffs) increases and the reprisals of other countries may be disrupting patterns of production.

Industrial production increased 3.5 percent year-on-year in May, following an upwardly revised 3.6 percent rise in April. By the way, May was the lowest annual growth rate in industrial output in four months.

Emerging Markets

Singapore’s trade data was weaker than expected overnight, which has caused some fears of trade disruption already starting to come through.

The country’s non-oil exports rose 1.1 percent in June compared to a year prior as electronics exports fell. That reading was short of the 7.6 percent growth forecast by economists in a Reuters poll and below the 15.5 percent expansion in May.

Non-oil domestic exports (NODX) momentum is likely to decelerate further into Q3. As such, there is some downside risk to full-year 2018 NODX growth forecast, assuming potential further disruptions to regional supply chains if the next leg of US$200 billion of US tariffs on Chinese imports materialize in September.

These export data mirror other weak export releases this month in the region, notably soft Korean exports. What is particularly concerning for a small open economy like Singapore, is that these figures are looking this weak before the global trade war has even really got going.

Etienne "Hans" Parisis is a bank economist who has advised investors on financial markets and international investments.