The US stock markets on Monday bore the brunt of the trade war provoked by President Donald Trump as they plummeted in early trade. The markets, however, reacted positively to an official’s alleged remark that Trump had been considering pausing tariffs for 90 days, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average gaining 300 points after a 1,200-point drop.
The uptick in the index was triggered by an alleged remark by White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett that US President Donald Trump was mulling a 90-day respite from his sweeping reciprocal tariffs for all countries except China. The remark had been shared by a couple of social media users, and went viral within minutes.
However, the White House soon stepped in and cleared the air, claiming it was fake news. Soon after, the markets resumed their downward spiral.
What did Trump’s adviser actually say?
Earlier in the morning, Hassett had spoken to Fox News, where he was noncommittal about a potential pause in the tariffs. “I think the president is going to decide what the president is going to decide,” he said.
Trump’s economic adviser had also said that the impact of trade wars was being exaggerated, adding that the talk of an “economic nuclear winter” was “completely irresponsible rhetoric”.
Trump not backing down on tariffs
Meanwhile, the US president also declared that he was not interested in changing his stance on aggressive tariffs even if they triggered a global markets’ meltdown. He said that other countries had been “taking advantage of the Good OL’USA” on international trade.
“Our past ‘leaders’ are to blame for allowing this, and so much else, to happen to our Country,” he wrote on his Truth Social network.
He later urged Americans to keep calm as the trade tensions continued to escalate. He asserted that the US had an opportunity to take significant action “that should have been done decades ago”.
“The United States has a chance to do something that should have been done DECADES AGO. Don’t be Weak! Don’t be Stupid! Don’t be a PANICAN (A new party based on Weak and Stupid people!). Be Strong, Courageous, and Patient, and GREATNESS will be the result!” the President wrote on his social media.
Earlier, at opening time, Wall Street took a tumble along with other global markets. Dow Jones was down 1,200 points and Nasdaq composite was 4 per cent lower. The S&P 500 was down 3.8 per cent in early trading.
Markets have been on the down low since Trump announced the tariffs and in just two days after, more than $5 trillion were wiped off the value of all US stocks.
