US stocks open at their lowest level as the S&P 500 falls 2.7% amid Trump’s tariffs war
On Monday the US stocks opened at their lowest level since President Donald Trump entered the White House.
The US President has imposed tariffs on Mexico, China and Canada and Trump has threatened to expand tariffs to the European Union also.
The S&P 500 fell 1.7% as the bell rang at the New York Stock Exchange and Trump has sparked fears of a global trade war and overnight there was steep declines and the stock market across Europe is expected to suffer some large fall.
Trump said that putting tariffs on China, Mexico and Canada will cause the US some short pain, “but “long term the United States has been ripped off by virtually every country in the world,” Reuters reports.
Speaking in Washington on Sunday President Trump said that the EU will be next to be hit with tariffs, but stopped short of when this will happen.
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Trump told reporters, “They don’t take our cars, they don’t take our farm products. They take almost nothing, and we take everything from them,” Reuters reported.
The US President has not ruled out imposing tariffs on UK goods, but offered an olive branch saying things can be worked out.
Asian markets opened on Monday which saw the Nikkei plummeting to 2.8% and the Hang Seng opened at 1% lower.
The pound fell 1% under $1.23 then rose 0.4% to €1.20 on Monday morning.
Kathleen Brooks, research director at XTB, warned that stock markets “are likely to have a strong reaction” to Trump’s tariffs.
She said, “European stocks are expected to open sharply lower, and we expect the most severe declines for cyclical stocks and for the big exporters.
“Not only is the UK a defensive-style index, especially the FTSE 100, but it is not facing an immediate threat of tariffs; even so, the FTSE 100 is still pointing to a 0.8% decline at the start of this week.
“This does not mean that the UK economy will avoid impact from the tariffs, but it does mean that the UK economy could be more resilient than elsewhere.”