The US President Donald Trump has warned the so-called “abusing countries not to retaliate” over the sweeping tariffs war which threatens to lead to an “economic nuclear winter” as the FTSE and global markets plummet.
Trump has said he will not back down on his levies even though global stock markets are crashing and the FTSE 100 has fallen to a one-year low.
Billionaire fund manager who backed Trump during his presidency run, Bill Ackman has issued a warning that the tariffs war should be stopped to prevent an “economic nuclear winter.”
The FTSE 250 lost 5% as the market opened and last week the FTSE 100 closed at it’s lowest this year at 8,054, which was a fall of 10% to 800 points.
The pound rose against the US dollar by 0.2% and the Euro was up by 0.4% against the greenback, which now stands at £1 equals $1.292 and the €1 is $1.10.
Asian markets was severely hit as Hong Kong’s Hang Seng plummeted by almost 13% and China’s CSI 300 dropped by 8%.
Europe’s STOXX 600 dropped sharply by 5.8% which is the sharpest fall since the pandemic and the German Dax was down by 6.6% which left Deutsche Bank losing 10%.
Trump is telling countries to come to the negotiating table with Washington and the US President is strongly urging against retaliatory measures.
Trump posted on Truth Social, “Oil prices are down, interest rates are down (the slow moving Fed should cut rates!), food prices are down, there is NO INFLATION, and the long-time abused USA is bringing in Billions of Dollars a week from the abusing countries on Tariffs that are already in place.
“This is despite the fact that the biggest abuser of them all, China, whose markets are crashing, just raised its Tariffs by 34%, on top of its long term ridiculously high Tariffs (Plus!), not acknowledging my warning for abusing countries not to retaliate.
“They’ve made enough, for decades, taking advantage of the Good OL’ USA! Our past “leaders” are to blame for allowing this, and so much else, to happen to our Country. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”
On Sunday evening whilst onboard Air Force One Trump told reporters, “I don’t want anything to go down. But sometimes you have to take medicine to fix something.”
Trump added, “I spoke to a lot of leaders, European, Asian, from all over the world. They’re dying to make a deal.
“We’re going to have surpluses or, at worst, going to be breaking even.”
