(Bloomberg) — Global stocks slipped as investors awaited more clarity on US tariff plans and the economic outlook before President Donald Trump’s April 2 deadline to impose a fresh trade levies.
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Europe’s Stoxx 600 index dropped 0.5%, while futures on the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 were down about 0.2%, following modest gains on the indexes on Tuesday. In premarket trading, shares in Tesla Inc. and Nvidia Corp. edged lower. Video game retailer GameStop Corp. jumped 12% after it said its board approved adding Bitcoin as a treasury reserve asset.
In Britain, the FTSE 250 gauge of mid-sized stocks advanced about 0.5%, as data showing an unexpected inflation slowdown strengthened the case for the Bank of England to cut interest rates.
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The tariffs issue remains front and center for investors, who took comfort earlier this month from the Trump adminstration’s signal that the coming wave of levies may be less expansive and more targeted than originally feared. However, the president has since sown confusion by saying he didn’t want too many tariff exceptions, but he would “probably be more lenient than reciprocal.”
All that has left investors struggling to work out how to position ahead of the April 2 deadline that Trump has dubbed “Liberation Day.”
“Uncertainty on the tariff front remains ridiculously high, leaving it incredibly tough for businesses or consumers to plan more than about a day into the future, and still making it nigh-on impossible for market participants to price risk,” said Michael Brown, a strategist at Pepperstone Group Ltd.
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An added layer of uncertainty stems from the global economy, which many analysts fear is slowing down even as inflation remains broadly elevated. Growth concerns were fanned further on Tuesday by US data showing consumer confidence at a four-year low.
The fear of a sharper-than-expected economic downturn is hampering US equities from rebounding decisively after a recent four-week selloff, with growth-linked technology names under most pressure. The S&P 500 is set for its worst first-quarter performance in three years, with record underperformance versus European stocks in dollar terms. The Stoxx 600, meanwhile, is on track for its best quarter since end-2022.
