U.S. stock markets fell sharply on Thursday, giving up much of their historic gains from the previous day as President Donald Trump's trade war continues to threaten economic performance.
The S&P 500 fell 3.5%, capping a 9.5% gain on Wednesday after Trump announced he would suspend some of his tariffs around the world.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1,014 points, or 2.5%, while the Nasdaq Composite fell 4.3%.
US President Donald Trump has placed greater emphasis on China, increasing tariffs on its goods to levels well above 100%.
“Trump is blinking,” UBS strategist Bhanu Baweja wrote in a report on the president's tariffs, adding that “the damage is still not fully undone.”
Mr Baweja said that even if the tariff could be reduced to 50% and if only 10% duties were left for other countries, the negative impact on the US economy could still be strong enough to affect the expected growth of future profits of US companies.
The slide in U.S. stocks deepened Thursday when the White House clarified that Chinese imports would be subject to a 145% tariff, down from 125% as reported in Trump's post on Truth Social on Wednesday, after taking into account his previous 20% tariffs on fentanyl.
The S&P 500 index fell by more than 6% at one point.
“The environment is still very volatile because with Donald Trump, you can’t predict what to expect,” said Francis Lun, CEO of Geo Securities. “There is really a lot of uncertainty in the market. The threat of a recession has not gone away.”
Meanwhile, China has reached out to other countries in an apparent bid to create a united front against Mr Trump.
Shares of Warner Bros. Discovery, the company behind the Minecraft movie, fell 12.5 percent, one of the sharpest losses on Wall Street after China announced it would “reduce the number of U.S. movies it imports.”
Walt Disney Co shares fell 6.8%.
A spokesman for the China Film Administration said it was “inevitable” that Chinese audiences would become less receptive to American films due to the “wrong move by the US to arbitrarily impose tariffs on China.”
It came after Mr Trump and his Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent sent a clear message to other countries on Wednesday when they announced a suspension of tariffs for most countries: “Don't respond and you will be rewarded.”
European
Sourse: breakingnews.ie
