Trump’s tariffs trigger Wall Street’s biggest losses since 2020
Trump’s ‘Liberation Day’ tariff onslaught left global markets with some of their biggest losses since the pandemic.
The FTSE 100 sank 1.5 per cent as banking and tech stocks across the globe dragged the index down.
The FTSE 350 bank index fell nearly eight per cent, as Standard Chartered, HSBC, and Barclays all suffered heavy losses.
Over on Wall Street the S&P 500 fell nearly five per cent whilst the tech-heavy Nasdaq Exchange lost six per cent.
The Dow Jones plunged four per cent.
Apple, which is traded on the Nasdaq, lost over $250 billion (£191bn) in market value as shares in the tech giant plummeted 9.3 per cent.
Nvidia fell almost eight per cent and Tesla fell more than five per cent.
Despite this, Trump promised on Thursday that markets would “boom”.
He added that the country would also benefit from the new levies and repeated his claim that US trading partners have “taken advantage of us for many, many years”.
Brent crude oil fell to $69.94 a barrel, a 6.7 per cent loss.
The dollar had its worst daily drop since 2022 yesterday, falling 1.6 per cent against its rivals.
As US investors sought safe havens amongst the market turmoil, they flocked to shorter-dated treasury bonds, leading to further anticipation of a rate cut from the Federal Reserve.
The President slapped a baseline tariff of 10 per cent on all countries, which included the UK, however Trump added the “worst offenders” would face a higher levy.
Sir Keir Starmer has pledged not to respond with a “knee-jerk reaction”.
He reiterated his efforts to secure a trade deal with the US to business leaders on Thursday after early negotiations had failed to help Britain avoid tariffs.
The European Union faced a 20 per cent import tax, whilst China was handed a 20 per cent levy sending its total tariff on US imports up to 54 per cent.
China has promised countermeasures to protect its interests.
The country’s foreign ministry said: “It is clear that more and more countries have come to stand against the US’s tariff hikes and other unilateral bullying moves.”
France’s Prime Minister François Bayrou said Trump’s actions were “a catastrophe for the world economy” as well as a “catastrophe for the US and for American citizens”.