US customs chaos continues: Trump pauses new tariffs, euphoria on stock market
Donald Trump's US tariffs will not be imposed for three months – but goods from China will now be subject to 125% tariffs. The stock markets have rewarded this.
(Image: Arsenii Palivoda/Shutterstock.com)
After US President Donald Trump surprisingly announced a 90-day pause for almost all new US tariffs on Wednesday, the major US stock indices and the Nasdaq 100, which is dominated by technology stocks, benefited the most. It ultimately climbed 12.02% to 19,145 points. This is only slightly below the level prior to the presentation of the tariff package last week. Trump did not suspend the tariffs on goods from China and instead increased them to 125%. So the trade war continues. In addition to the Nasdaq 100, the Dow Jones Industrial also made up for recent losses with a jump of 7.87% and the S&P 500 with a gain of 9.52%.
Background unclear
It was Trump himself who triggered the massive slide on the US stock markets with the announcement of high tariffs for almost all countries in the world last week. These came into force on Wednesday. There had already been warnings that he was likely to have triggered a recession in the US and investors had started to sell US government bonds on Wednesday night. This was seen as a worrying development for the future of US finances. There is now speculation that it was this development that caused Trump to change his mind. However, US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick denied this in an interview.
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The US President himself justified the U-turn by saying that "people" had become a little restless and "a little anxious". Shortly before the move, he had written on his social network Truth Social that now was a great time to buy. He signed the post with his initials DJT. This is also the stock exchange abbreviation of the Trump media company that operates Truth Social. Shares in Trump Media & Technology ended the day with a particularly high gain of 21.67%. Shares in Tesla, the electric car company led by Trump confidant Elon Musk, made up even more ground.
Apple was also one of the big winners on the stock market, with its share price rising by more than 15 percent, its highest daily gain since 1998, writes CNBC. This also put Apple back ahead of Microsoft in terms of group value, after the Windows company's shares rose by 10 percent. Nvidia's share price rose by 18 percent, Meta's by almost 15 percent and Amazon's by 12 percent. Alphabet also made strong gains with an increase of 10 percent. US government bond prices also slowed their initial sharp decline following Trump's U-turn.
(mho)
