The New York stock exchange has closed on its worst day of trading since June 2020 – during the early months of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The main indices saw their worst one-day falls in five years as Donald Trump claimed that “the markets are going to boom” in response to his sweeping tariffs.
The S&P 500 index is down 4.9% at the close, which Reuters flags is the biggest one-day drop since June 2020.
The Dow has also posted its biggest one-day drop since June 2020, down 4%.
Meanwhile, the Nasdaq tumbled 5.9%, its worst single-day performance since March 2020.
The scale of the sell-off, wiping trillions of dollars off the value of US companies, highlights just how alarmed investors are by the tariffs, and the fears they could lead to a recession.
US President Donald Trump’s worldwide tariff salvo could lead to an overall contraction of around 1 percent in global merchandise trade volumes this year, the WTO chief warned Thursday.
After Trump on Wednesday unveiled a blitz of harsher-than-expected levies aimed at countries around the globe, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala warned the measures would “have substantial implications for global trade and economic growth prospects”.
Trump slapped 10 percent import duties on all nations and far higher levies on imports from dozens of specific countries — including top trade partners China and the European Union — adding to tariffs already imposed since his return to power in January.
“While the situation is rapidly evolving, our initial estimates suggest that these measures, coupled with those introduced since the beginning of the year, could lead to an overall contraction of around 1 percent in global merchandise trade volumes this year,” the World Trade Organization director-general said in a statement.
On Wednesday, four Republican senators joined their Democratic colleagues to pass a resolution, introduced by Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia, designed to undermine President Donald Trump’s policy of imposing tariffs on Canada.
The operative word here — “designed” — makes all the difference, for the resolution has no chance of actually restraining the president.
In fact, Republican Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso chastised his four colleagues for the emptiness of their gesture.
“Sen. Kaine’s goal was not to make law. It was simply an effort to undermine President Trump’s successful work to secure the Northern Border,” Barrasso said in a statement, per Fox News.
Indeed, Trump has justified tariffs on Canada in part by citing that nation’s lax border enforcement. As a result, the deadly drug fentanyl has poured into the United States.
Moreover, Barrasso expressed confidence that Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson would squash the Senate resolution.
“Speaker Johnson already declared Sen. Kaine’s resolution dead on arrival in the House of Representatives. It will never make it to President Trump’s desk,” Barrasso continued. “This meaningless messaging resolution will not stop Senate Republicans from making America’s communities safer.
US President Donald Trump has unveiled his long-awaited “reciprocal” tariff plan, in a move that sent financial markets reeling amid growing fears of a global trade war.
On Wednesday, Trump announced a 10 percent “minimum baseline tariff” on nearly all imports into the United States. Higher duties on targeted countries will be phased in shortly afterwards.
He claimed the new import taxes were designed to reduce trade deficits and bring foreign manufacturing back to US shores. He also said they would pave the way for tax future cuts.
As Trump took aim at a global trading system he said “ripped off” the US, his tariffs prompted an immediate backlash, with some of America’s largest trading partners promising countermeasures.
United States President Donald Trump didn’t announce any “reciprocal tariffs” on imports from Mexico on Wednesday, but a 25% tariff on Mexican canned beer is set to take effect on Friday.
During a speech in the Rose Garden of the White House, Trump presented a chart outlining “reciprocal tariffs” on imports from a long list of countries, but Mexico wasn’t among them.
President Trump announces a minimum 10% tariff on all countries plus additional country-specific rates. pic.twitter.com/jM5272SSCm
In a fact sheet explaining the “reciprocal tariff” executive order the U.S. president signed on Wednesday, the White House said that Mexico and Canada are “unaffected by this order.”
“This means USMCA-compliant goods will continue to see a 0% tariff, non-USMCA compliant goods will see a 25% tariff, and non-USMCA-compliant energy and potash will see a 10% tariff,” the White House said.
“In the event the existing fentanyl/migration IEEPA [International Emergency Economic Powers Act] orders are terminated, USMCA-compliant goods would continue to receive preferential treatment, while non-USMCA-compliant goods would be subject to a 12% reciprocal tariff,” the fact sheet said.
On March 6, Trump announced that imports from Mexico covered by the USMCA free trade pact would not be subject to U.S. tariffs until at least early April. He had imposed a 25% tariff on all imports from Mexico and Canada two days earlier due to what the White House said was the two countries’ failure to take adequate action against “the influx of lethal drugs” to the U.S.
U.S. President Donald Trump announced the range of reciprocal tariffs he is imposing against nearly 200 global trading partners, saying the U.S. has been “looted” and “pillaged” by other nations and needs to respond.
The list of countries and territories, laid out across eight pages of documents, includes a baseline 10 per cent tariff on the countries but imposes higher duties on many other countries.
Canada is not impacted — yet — but does continue to face existing tariffs as well as previously threatened auto tariffs that kick in on Thursday.
The chart shows the U.S. will charge a 34 per cent tax on imports from China, 20 per cent on European Union products and 25 per cent on South Korea.
Here’s a list of all the countries and overseas territories listed by the White House as facing “reciprocal” tariffs by the U.S. and the amount they will be hit with in duties from highest to lowest:
President Donald Trump unveiled his reciprocal tariff plan Wednesday during a Rose Garden event the White House billed as “Liberation Day.”
With most of his cabinet on hand, as well as auto workers from Michigan, among others, Trump announced that he would be charging countries essentially half what his administration calculates, on average, they are imposing on the United States.
Further, there will be a 10 percent baseline across the board.
Trump called it a “kind reciprocal tariff” policy, saying he would be embarrassed to charge the full amount other countries are imposing on U.S. goods.
First on a list that Trump pointed to during the announcement was China, which he said charges the U.S. a 67 percent tariff (his chart indicated the administration’s tariff calculations include currency manipulation and trade barriers).
In response, Trump said his administration will be imposing a 34 percent tariff on Chinese goods.
For three years, the U.S. economy has been buffeted by rapid inflation, high interest rates and political instability at home and abroad. Yet it has proved surprisingly resilient, supported by the sturdy pillars of robust consumer spending, a rising stock market, and healthy balance sheets for households and businesses alike.
But one by one, those pillars have begun to crack under the weight of tariffs and uncertainty. The all-out global trade war that President Trump declared on Wednesday could be enough to shatter what had arguably been the economy’s final source of support, the strong job market.
“The strength of the consumer is coming down to the jobs market,” said Sarah House, an economist at Wells Fargo. “And it’s increasingly perilous.”
The sweeping tariffs that Mr. Trump announced on Wednesday, and the duties that U.S. trading partners quickly imposed in retaliation, sent stock indexes around the world tumbling on Thursday. The effects won’t be limited to the financial markets: Economists say tariffs will raise prices for consumers and businesses, which will lead employers to pull back on hiring and, if the tariffs remain in place long enough, lay off workers.
“If the economy isn’t growing as fast, or it isn’t growing at all, you don’t need as many workers,” Ms. House said.
Economists will get their latest glimpse of the job situation on Friday, when the Bureau of Labor Statistics will release March figures on hiring and unemployment.
Two of the world’s largest automakers announced on Thursday that they are offering America First deals on new vehicles for customers or making production changes while seeking to take advantage of President Donald Trump’s new tariffs on foreign-assembled vehicles.
For the next several months, Ford will be touting a “From America, For America” deal, which will offer new customers the chance to purchase vehicles at employee pricing, potentially knocking thousands of dollars off the going rate.
Steve Croley, the company’s chief policy officer, told “Fox & Friends” that Americans deserve a break for going out of their way to buy American-made cars.
“We’re going to offer customers the same deal that our employees get. That’s worth thousands of dollars,” he told host Brian Kilmeade.
“We’ve heard some uncertainty from our customers and we want them to be assured that Ford, the most American auto company, is going to do right by them, as are our dealers. We make the most cars here, we employ the most, we export the most, and so we here at Ford, we’re in a good position to address customers’ concern and give them a really great deal on a great vehicle,” he added.
Economist EJ Antoni, bucking the mainstream hysteria, is explaining that Donald Trump isn’t launching a trade war; he’s exposing the extremely unbalanced trade war the U.S. has been losing for decades.
In a hard-hitting op-ed for Fox News, Antoni compared Trump to one of his Republican presidential predecessors, U.S. Grant, for sheer grit and determination in spite of smear campaigns and prophecies of failure. The reality is that other countries have been imposing unfair tariffs on American goods while demanding no reciprocal tariffs for years. Trump is just insisting that other countries pay the same tariffs they require us to pay. The trade war already existed; it’s just that Trump wants to win.
Antoni insisted, “Trump is being attacked for being anti-free trade or for starting a trade war, but the opposite is true. For most of the last half century, the global economy has become entrenched in a pseudo-free trade that artificially disadvantages American exporters.”
He added, “In this sense, other nations declared a trade war on America decades ago, and our leaders never fought back.“ Trump’s reciprocal tariffs are meant to pressure other nations that do, in fact, rely on American trade and American consumers “to reduce their trade barriers and end a trade war that already exists.”
Nike stock is plunging on Thursday, the day after President Donald Trump announced reciprocal tariffs that will end the nation’s decades-long free trade policy.
“NKE was last seen 11.3% lower at $57.62, as investors digest the long-term impact of rising supply chain costs on the company’s margins,” Schaeffer’s Investment Research reports. “The stock is set to snap a three-day win streak, extending its late-March post-earnings bear gap and hitting its lowest level since November 2017. Nike stock now carries a 23.5% year-to-date deficit.”
On Wednesday evening, Trump announced reciprocal tariffs — adding a 34 percent tariff on China, a 46 percent tariff on Vietnam, a 49 percent tariff on Cambodia, a 32 percent tariff on Indonesia, and a 36 percent tariff on Thailand, among a long list of others.
Shares in Nike, Adidas, and Puma dropped sharply after Vietnam was targeted with a 46% tariff rate, Cambodia with 49%, Bangladesh with 37% and Indonesia with 32%, while Trump hiked tariffs on China by an extra 34 percentage points, following the earlier 20% tariffs. [Emphasis added]
“Companies that worked hard over the years to reduce reliance on China by leaning into countries like Vietnam just learned there really isn’t a place to hide,” BMO Capital Markets analyst Simeon Siegel said. [Emphasis added]
Ford Motor said on Thursday that it was lowering prices on most of its vehicles to the same levels it charges employees in a bid to boost sales as President Trump’s tariffs on imported cars took effect.
The tariffs began on Thursday on vehicles imported from Mexico, Canada, Japan, Germany and other countries. The duties — 25 percent of the value of the vehicle in most cases — are expected to increase prices of new cars and trucks and dampen demand.
About half the vehicles sold in the United States each year are produced in other countries. Mexico is the top source of those cars and Canada is among the largest. For three decades, the United States, Canada and Mexico have had a free-trade zone, and automakers have moved parts and vehicles freely among the three countries.
Ford’s new program, which the company is calling “From America, for America,” could help reduce a large inventory of unsold cars. In February, Ford had more cars in inventory as measured by how many days it would take to sell them all than all but three other brands — Jaguar, Mini and Dodge — according to Cox Automotive, a research firm.
General Motors is the latest automobile company to respond to President Donald Trump’s newly implemented auto tariffs, announcing it will be ramping up production in Indiana.
The shake-up for GM, known for brands such as Chevrolet, Buick, and GMC, will bring about an uptick in production at its plant near Fort Wayne, Indiana, which is known for producing Chevrolet’s Silverado 1500 and GMC’s Sierra 1500. The increase in productivity will also extend to hiring hundreds of temporary employees.
“General Motors will be making operational adjustments at Fort Wayne Assembly, including hiring temporary employees, to support current manufacturing and business needs,” a spokesperson for the automaker said in a statement. “We continuously update and revise production schedules as part of our standard process of evaluating and aligning to manage vehicle inventory.”
Despite last-minute pressure from President Donald Trump, four Senate Republicans on Wednesday bucked demands to back his plan for sharp new tariffs on Canada, a slap in the face that he has promised not to forget.
A midnight missive by President Trump early Wednesday morning wasn’t enough to prevent the four Republicans from joining with unanimous Democratic support to pass a resolution denouncing President Trump’s tariffs on Canada. Of the four — Sens. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Rand Paul (R-KY), Susan Collins (R-ME), and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) — only Collins is up for reelection next year while McConnell has announced his intent to retire.
Trump previously implored the four holdouts to “get on the Republican bandwagon, for a change, and fight the Democrats wild and flagrant push to not penalize Canada for the sale, into our Country, of large amounts of Fentanyl, by Tariffing the value of this horrible and deadly drug in order to make it more costly to distribute and buy.”
In a fiery floor speech on Wednesday, Sen. Paul accused Trump of placing a tax hike on the American people by leveeing his new tariffs.
“This is a tax, plain and simple,” he said of Trump’s Canada tariffs. “Taxes should not be enacted by one person. So I will vote today to end the emergency. I will vote today to try to reclaim the power of taxation, the power of the tariff, to where the Constitution designated it should properly be, and that is in Congress.”
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is facing global blowback after announcing a dramatic series of tariffs on countries around the world, with U.S. adversaries and allies alike promising crushing responses that could devastate the American economy.
Stock markets in the United States, Europe and Asia plunged in the aftermath of President Trump’s announcement, which included a 10% base rate hike on nearly all foreign imports. Still other countries and trading blocs, including China, the European Union, South Korea and Japan, were hit with higher rates.
“We’re now preparing for further countermeasures to protect our interests and our businesses if negotiations fail,” Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, said in remarks late Wednesday evening from Uzbekistan, calling Trump’s announcement “a major blow to the world economy.”
The British trade secretary said that the United Kingdom, one of America’s closest allies with strong ties to the Trump administration, would work over the next month to see whether it could negotiate an exemption from U.S. tariffs, or otherwise deliver retaliatory taxes. The government published a webpage asking businesses for input on identifying which American products the U.K. should implement tariffs on, with the most minimal impact on the British economy.