Friday Briefing: Trump’s tariffs rattle the markets
Good morning. We’re covering global reactions to Trump’s tariffs and an upcoming court ruling on South Korea’s president. Plus, Bruce Springsteen’s “Lost Albums.”
U.S. stocks nose-dived after Trump’s tariffs rolloutWall Street tumbled to its worst day since the pandemic yesterday in response to President Trump’s major round of tariffs on U.S. imports, as countries reeling from the blow weighed countermeasures. Stocks in Asia and Europe also fell. Some European leaders vowed to retaliate after Trump slapped a 20 percent tariff on the E.U. “If you take on one of us, you take on all of us,” Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president, said. Here’s the latest. China, which faces a new 34 percent tariff on top of the blanket import tax imposed earlier this year, vowed to respond to “safeguard its own rights and interests.” Britain said that negotiations with the U.S. would continue. The S&P 500 fell 4.8 percent, its worst drop since June 2020, at the height of the coronavirus pandemic. The reaction suggested that the scale of the tariffs had come as a surprise. Apple led a tech sell-off, falling about 9 percent.
Reactions: Prime Minister Mark Carney said that Canada introduced a 25 percent tariff on cars and trucks and called for a new global trading order without the U.S. President Claudia Sheinbaum of Mexico announced plans to increase domestic production of food, energy, textiles and other items in a bid to blunt the impact of tariffs. France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, called on European companies to suspend all investments in the U.S. “until things have been clarified.” Asia hard hit: The punishing tariffs on Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand and others in the region threaten their position as manufacturing hubs for the U.S. market and an alternative to China. Trump’s tariffs also hit garment makers in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka hard. See which countries have the highest tariff rates. Vehicles: New tariffs of 25 percent on all automobiles made outside the U.S. took effect yesterday. Trump said the tariffs would encourage investment in U.S. factories, but analysts said car buyers would end up paying more. Here’s what else to know about the tariffs. |
