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U.S. trade negotiations appear to have gotten even stickier, as the U.S. commerce secretary left China empty handed and President Donald Trump gets set to meet an unhappy group of world leaders at the end of the week.

The Trump administration last week turned trade threats into action by slapping tariffs on steel and aluminum from Canada, Mexico and Europe, all of which have retaliated and are fighting the U.S. move at the World Trade Organization. The heads of Canada, Japan, German, France, the U.K. and Italy will all be in attendance at the G-7 summit in Quebec Friday, and all have first-hand experience with Trump tariffs. Trump meets President Shinzo Abe of Japan on Thursday ahead of the Friday summit.

The U.S. last week said it would proceed with 25 percent tariffs on $50 billion in Chinese goods, with a final list of imports to be announced June 15. China's Foreign Ministry Monday said it was open in principle to talks with the U.S. but said any trade and business deals with the U.S. would be void if Washington implemented tariffs.

"I think we're at a real low point," said Greg Valliere, chief global strategist at Horizon Investment. "This has been a pretty bad stretch… I do feel pretty strongly about trade, that it's going to get worse before it gets better."

But even so stocks rallied Monday on strong U.S. growth prospects, ignoring the backdrop of difficult trade developments. The tariffs and trade friction is not expected to have much impact on the broader economy, but trade experts say they could create job losses in some sectors reliant on metals and drive prices higher for consumers.

"Markets are focused on an accelerating U.S. economy," notes Dan Clifton, head of policy research at Strategas. The Nasdaq raced to a new closing high Monday as Apple and Amazon both reached records. The Russell 2000 also hit a new high.

Trade issues could creep into the market psyche later in the week. The tariffs on Canada and Mexico have made discussions around NAFTA more difficult, and now expectations for a revised North American Free Trade Agreement are fading.