Stock markets slide on Trump social media missives

Friday 23 Could 2025 5:17 pm

Inventory markets throughout the western world felt the “chill winds” of Donald Trump’s newest commerce salvos on Friday after the US President vowed to levy tariffs on imports from Europe and all Apple merchandise made exterior the US.

America’s S&P 500 index opened down 1.62 per cent as merchants pared again bets on US shares in response to the brand new developments in Trump’s long-running commerce saga.

Shares in Apple opened 3.72 per cent decrease, responding to the capricious President pledge to levy a 25 per cent import tax on all iPhones made exterior the US.

Writing on Reality Social, Trump confirmed he had “knowledgeable Tim Prepare dinner of Apple” that he expects all iPhones bought within the US to be made within the US, “not India or anyplace else”.

“If that isn’t the case, a Tariff of 25 per cent have to be paid by Apple to the US,” he added.

Minutes later, Trump posted one other ‘fact’ pledging to levy a 50 per cent tariff on all of the nation’s imports from the European Union from the beginning of June.

Euopean shares all fell sharply on the information. The pan-European STOXX 600 index fell simply shy of two per cent after the commerce salvo, pushing into to a weekly fall for the primary time in over a month.

The blue-chip indexes in France and Germany fell too. Paris’ Cac and Frankfurt’s DAX dropped 1.65 per cent and 1.54 per cent respectively.

Susannah Streeter, head of cash and markets at Hargreaves Lansdown, stated: “Trump has made it clear that the EU continues to be out within the chilly relating to commerce negotiations and it’s despatched a shiver by European inventory markets.

“Whereas the US administration has proven a willingness to dealer offers with different nations around the globe, the President’s chilly tone in the direction of Europe has sparked recent fears that punishing tariffs might turn into a actuality for the bloc.”

The bearish sentiment spilled over into London-listed equities too. The FTSE 100 fell by as a lot as 1.35 per cent instantly after Trump printed his social media posts, earlier than paring again nearly all of these losses to shut down 0.24 per cent.