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President’s 90-day pause and ‘substantially lowered Reciprocal Tariff during this period, of 10 percent’ sends markets soaring in U.S. and Asia
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Donald Trump urged the world to “be cool” as his sweeping import taxes took effect, crashing global markets and sending shockwaves through the U.S. economy. Minutes after trading began on Wall Street, Trump declared: “THIS IS A GREAT TIME TO BUY!!!”
Hours later, the president performed an extraordinary U-turn. He paused and reduced tariffs on most nations for 90 days while increasing tariffs on imports from China to 125 percent. Markets surged. White House officials — who just one day earlier said Trump would never back down — claimed “this was his strategy all along” and “the art of the deal” at work.
Social media exploded with accusations that the president orchestrated a reverse “pump and dump” scheme with the American economy: drive stock prices down only to buy them up before prices rise again. Democratic Senator Adam Schiff is calling for an investigation into market manipulation or insider trading.
Later, asked by a reporter about when he arrived at the decision to pause the tariffs, Trump gave a muddled answer.
“For a period of time. I would say this morning. Over the last few days, I’ve been thinking about it,” the president said. He added, “Fairly early this morning.”
In Asia, stock markets soared as relieved investors welcomed Trump’s reversal.
U.S. National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard has reportedly set up her own DOGE-like group to cut costs and investigate “weaponization” in the 18 agencies under her authority, according to a new report.
Gabbard’s Director’s Initiatives Group was established in adherence to an executive order signed by President Donald Trump to “bring about transparency and accountability” in the U.S.’s intelligence agencies, according to a press release from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, which was released on Tuesday.
Graig Graziosi reports.
Richard Hall writes:
A tattoo equipment supplier in Pennsylvania is worried they won’t make it to summer. A three-person team making optical scanners in San Diego saw their bills double overnight. A coffee shop in New Orleans may be forced to raise its prices.
Donald Trump has defended his sweeping tariffs by claiming to be a president “who stands up for Main Street, not Wall Street,” but it is small businesses that are already bearing the brunt of his economic gamble.
Read on…
The House of Representatives voted Wednesday to overturn a rule that would have limited bank overdraft fees to $5, following the Senate in moving to dismantle the regulation that the Biden administration estimated would save consumers billions of dollars.
The resolution killing the rule, which passed the House 217-211, will now head to the White House for President Donald Trump’s signature.
Republicans argued that the “disastrous” regulation issued in the final days of President Joe Biden’s term would have forced banks to stop offering overdraft protection altogether and made it harder for Americans to access credit.
Democrats strongly opposed the effort and said the rule would help consumers who can’t afford the fees.
Asian shares surged in early trading on Thursday, with Japan’s benchmark jumping more than 2,000 points almost immediately after the Tokyo exchange opened, as relieved investors welcomed President Donald Trump’s U-turn on his tariff proposal.
Analysts had expected the regional comeback given that U.S. stocks had one of their best days in history Wednesday on a euphoric Wall Street, where investor hopes had run high that Trump would pause implementation of tariffs above 10 percent for 90 days to allow for negotiations.
The exception was China, which will now be hit with import taxes of 125 percent on goods shipped to the U.S.
On Thursday, Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 jumped 8.3% in morning trading to 34,353.17, zooming upward as soon as trading began. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 soared 4.7% to 7,722.90. South Korea’s Kospi gained 5.5% to 2,419.37. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng added 3.7% to 21,003.84. The Shanghai Composite edged up 1.5% to 3,232.86.
With reporting from the AP
While MAGA world treated Donald Trump’s sudden about-face on his “Liberation Day” tariffs as a masterful gambit and proof of the president’s “Art of the Deal” prowess, Fox Business correspondent Charles Gasparino injected a dose of reality on Wednesday.
“Let’s be clear,” Gasparino noted just moments after the 90-day pause on most of the president’s so-called “reciprocal” tariffs was announced. “It is the White House who capitulated.”
Justin Baragona reports.
New York Democratic Rep Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has some advice for her fellow members of Congress: disclose your recent stock purchases now.
She wrote on X: “Any member of Congress who purchased stocks in the last 48 hours should probably disclose that now.
“I’ve been hearing some interesting chatter on the floor.
“Disclosure deadline is May 15th. We’re about to learn a few things.”
She added: “It’s time to ban insider trading in Congress.”
Downing Street said that the UK will “coolly and calmly” continue its negotiations after Donald Trump announced a 90-day tariff pause for most nations.
The US president said he would be delaying tariffs on most nations for 90 days while raising his tax rate on Chinese imports to 125%.
The precise details were not immediately clear, but the US treasury secretary has said Mr Trump will keep his 10% baseline tariffs on most countries.
It is understood that this does not mean any immediate change for the UK.
Continue reading…
President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Wednesday to review the rules governing exports of military equipment, aiming to facilitate U.S. defense firms in selling their products abroad.
“We’re unable to provide weapons systems in a reliable, effective way to key allies of ours, and the key driver of that is inefficiencies and inconsistencies with the process by which we approve foreign military sales,” White House aide Will Scharf said at the signing ceremony in the Oval Office.
“So this executive order is going to direct your Department of Defense, Department of State, other relevant departments and agencies, to rework our system of foreign defense sales to ensure that we can provide equipment creating American jobs and providing obviously revenue to American defense manufacturers, but provide key military equipment to our key allies in a reliable, effective way,” he said.
Reuters reported on April 1 that Trump was planning to issue an order that would relax rules governing the export of military equipment, similar to legislation proposed by Michael Waltz, his national security adviser, last year when he served as a Republican member of the House of Representatives.
The order could increase sales for big U.S. defense contractors like Lockheed Martin, RTX, and Boeing.
Currently, the U.S. Arms Export Control Act grants Congress the authority to review arms exports to other countries based on their status as close allies and the size of the proposed sale.
Reporting from Reuters
Stock markets surged after President Donald Trump announced a pause on most of his sweeping tariffs, with both the Dow Jones and the NASDAQ breaking records for the largest point gains in a single day.
The stock markets closed with massive gains after Trump announced the change in his tariff plan. At close, the Dow soared 2,962 points, while the NASDAQ surged 1,857 points, marking the largest single-day point gains for both indices. The S&P 500 also closed up 9.5 percent for one of its best days since 2008.
The president announced the decision in a Wednesday Truth Social post.
Mike Bedigan and Kelly Rissman tracked the markets today.
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