
Tariffs, Lies and Diminishing Economic Ties – US Market Wrap
Fast-changing tariff news perplexed traders across asset classes Friday, shattering the calm brought on earlier by declining concerns about the tech industry. A White House statement that President Donald Trump intends to implement tariffs on China, Mexico, and Canada this weekend boosted the dollar as markets fell
The S&P 500 erased a surge of about 1%. The dollar had its best week since November, with the White House announcing that Trump intends to put 25% tariffs on Mexico and Canada, as well as a 10% duty on China on Saturday. The US also refuted a news story that the president planned to delay implementation by a month, which had previously sent the dollar down. The loonie fell 0.2%, while the peso saw no move. Oil surged as Trump announced taxes on crude.
Speaking on Friday, the US president announced that he would slap tariffs on a wide range of goods in the coming months, including steel, aluminium, oil and gas, pharmaceuticals, and semiconductors, ratcheting up his threats to levy fresh penalties on trading partners.
The slump in equities came after a somewhat positive start to the day, with the market briefly overcoming losses caused by fears that a low-cost artificial intelligence model from Chinese startup DeepSeek would make valuations of the emerging technology difficult to explain. The market scarcely moved as the Federal Reserve’s favoured inflation gauge met expectations, although it remained well above the central bank’s 2% objective.