Trump has a habit of firing off tariff comments in Wall Street’s off hours, catching traders off their guard.
The latest example: The president suggested on Sunday that all US trading partners will be covered in the like-for-like tariffs expected to be laid out in the April 2 “Liberation Day” announcement.
“You’d start with all countries,” he told reporters aboard Air Force One, Reuters reported. “Essentially all of the countries that we’re talking about.”
That dented Wall Street hopes that the levies would be restricted to a selection of trading partners seen as the worst offenders on balance of trade — the “dirty 15”.
Market spirits were already low after being whiplashed by Trump’s switchbacks on tariffs. Last week was the fifth in six weeks that the S&P 500 (^GSPC) and Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) ended the week in the red.
They took another bruising on Monday. US stock futures slumped, following in the footsteps of markets in Asia and Europe, while gold (GC=F) surged to yet another record.
