Trumpian chicanery renders any attempt at finding motive and reasons, for self-serving political and economic manipultion, are moot? Exploitable Chaos is The Trumpian métier !
Apr 12, 2025
Headline: Global stocks soar as Donald Trump backs down from trade war
Sub-headline: Washington pauses most tariffs against countries that have not retaliated but increases levies on China
https://www.ft.com/content/82e5a5c0-3e7b-419d-92f9-7b84475af2c9
Editor: The Financial Times reports on the Trumpian Chaos, and the massive sighes of relief, and the fears of an uncertain future, that cannot be assuaged!
Donald Trump stunned global investors on Wednesday when he announced a 90-day pause in additional tariffs on countries that were willing to negotiate with the US, sending stocks surging as the president backed down from a full-blown trade war.
Wall Street equities surged immediately after Trump’s announcement, with the blue-chip S&P 500 closing up 9.5 per cent and the Nasdaq Composite surging more than 12 per cent. It was the best day for the S&P 500 since 2008 and the strongest for the Nasdaq since 2001.
The massive rally in stocks added about $4.3tn to the market value of the S&P 500, according to Financial Times calculations based on FactSet data. The gains reversed some of the heavy losses for US stocks since Trump announced his wide-ranging tariffs a week ago.
However, the president also singled out China for further tariffs, increasing his additional levies on the world’s second-largest economy to 125 per cent, deepening his trade stand-off with the Asian nation.
Trump said in a Truth Social post: “Based on the fact that more than 75 Countries have called . . . to negotiate a solution . . . and that these Countries have not, at my strong suggestion, retaliated in any way, shape, or form against the United States, I have authorized a 90 day PAUSE, and a substantially lowered Reciprocal Tariff during this period, of 10%, also effective immediately.”
But China had showed a “lack of respect” by retaliating against US tariffs, Trump added. “I am hereby raising the Tariff charged to China by the United States of America to 125%, effective immediately.”
The stunning climbdown from the US leader came after a week of turmoil in global markets, with trillions of dollars shed in equity prices around the world, a sharp sell-off in US bonds, and a plunge in oil prices to levels last seen during the coronavirus pandemic.
“This is Trump’s capitulation to markets,” said Andy Brenner at NatAlliance Securities. “He has saved face by keeping tariffs on China.”
A heavy sell-off in US government debt, a bedrock of the global financial system, eased following Trump’s U-turn and a Treasury auction that signalled robust international demand. The 10-year yield, which had been up as much as 0.24 percentage points on Wednesday, ended the New York day up 0.08 percentage points at 4.35 per cent.
Companies that had been beaten down in recent days also posted huge gains on Wednesday. Apple, Nvidia, Microsoft, Amazon, Meta and Tesla all jumped at least 10 per cent following Trump’s announcement.
Commerce secretary Howard Lutnick said the “world is ready” to work with Trump to “fix global trade” but dismissed China as having “chosen the opposite direction”.
Lutnick added on X that he and Treasury secretary Scott Bessent “sat with the President while he wrote one of the most extraordinary Truth posts of his Presidency”.
Later on Wednesday, Trump appeared to acknowledge some of the fear in the markets sparked by his trade war.
“Well, I thought that people were jumping a little bit out of line. They were getting yippie, you know, they were getting . . . a little bit afraid,” he told reporters.
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https://www.ft.com/content/82e5a5c0-3e7b-419d-92f9-7b84475af2c9
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