Trump heralds ‘biggest day in financial history’ after US tariffs pause
US President Donald Trump spoke a little while earlier on the grounds of the White House after announcing his 90-day pause on reciprocal global tariffs.
He was specifically asked whether the share value volatility we’ve been seeing in recent days on financial stock markets influenced today’s decision.
“I was watching the bond market, the bond market is very tricky,” he told reporters.
“If you look at it now, it’s beautiful.
“I saw last night where people were getting a little queasy … The big move wasn’t what I did today, the big move was what I did on ‘Liberation Day’.
“It wasn’t sustainable, what was happening somebody had to pull the trigger, I was willing to pull the trigger. This should’ve been done long ago.
“In financial markets, they change. Look how much it changed today, we went from… pretty moderate today but over the last few days it looked pretty glum to, I guess, they say it was the biggest day in financial history.”
If you’d like to watch more of what the US president had to say, you can here:
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S&P 500’s best session since 2008
With a 9.5 per cent gain for the S&P 500, considered the bellwether index of Wall Street, you may be wondering where that leaves us in the context of the last few days.
Here’s the S&P over the past three months:
Over the year, the index is still 7.2 per cent lower.
Since the start of April, it’s down 2.7 per cent.
Trump pauses most ‘reciprocal’ tariffs but hikes China rate
The escalation in the trade war between the US and China hit another level overnight, leading the major swings on global markets.
Less than 14 hours after Donald Trump’s “reciprocal tariffs” took effect, the US president announced he had authorised a 90-day pause, reducing the higher-rate tariffs to 10 per cent for almost all countries.
However, the tariff on Chinese goods would be ratcheted up to 125 per cent because of China’s “lack of respect” to world markets, the president said.
China had earlier announced an 84 per cent tariff on US imports, which had seen European stocks tumble, with the Euro Stoxx 600 dropping 3.5%.
However, US trade was a totally different story with the best gains in more than a decade for the S&P and Nasdaq on the news of the pause.
Tariff pause puts a rocket under Wall Street
Good morning — Steph Chalmers jumping in to bring you the latest on markets, and it’s been a ride.
Many of you may have gone to bed to 4 per cent falls in Europe and woken up to … this.
Wall Street has just closed with its biggest gains in years:
- S&P 500 up 9.5%
- Dow Jones up 7.9%
- Nasdaq +12.2%
For the S&P, it was the biggest one-day surge since October 2008.
For the Nasdaq, it was the best percentage gain since 2001 — and its second-biggest session gain on record.
The local share market is poised to follow the rollercoaster higher, with SPI 200 futures up 6.1%, pointing to a rally when the ASX opens at 10am AEST.
