Stock markets tumbled on Monday as Donald Trump’s threatened tariffs on goods from Canada, Mexico and China sparked fears of a global trade war.
It’s the first trading day since the US president made good on his promise to slap high taxes on imports to the US.
He announced higher-than-expected 25% tariffs on Mexican and Canadian goods – only for a temporary ceasefire to later be agreed with his Mexican counterpart that will delay any US penalties for at least a month.
Before that development, Asian markets were the first to react to confirmation of tariffs with Japan’s Nikkei falling nearly 3% while South Korea’s Kospi was also down more than 2.5%.
Both countries are export-heavy nations through car manufacturing, which is vulnerable to further US import tax hikes.
Money blog: £200bn wiped off crypto in 24 hours
The stock market plummet continued as markets opened across Europe, with major indices in the EU seeing sharper declines than in the UK earlier in the day after Mr Trump pledged that the trading bloc would “definitely” see tariffs in future.
He was less certain about penalising the UK but the FTSE 100 still closed 1% down, recovering some poise in the afternoon on news of Mexico’s temporary Trump truce.
He held off after his southern neighbour agreed to send 10,000 soldiers to the border to stem the flow of illegal drugs.
The DAX in recession-hit Germany and French CAC also pared losses on the news – as did US stock markets on Wall Street. The S&P 500 was just 0.4% down heading towards the close though Trump cheerleader Elon Musk’s Tesla was more than 5% down.
Manufacturers such as…
