New York: US stocks are surging on a euphoric Wall Street Wednesday after President Donald Trump said he would temporarily back off on some of his tariffs, as investors had desperately hoped he would.
The S&P 500 was up 7.8 per cent in afternoon trading. It had been down earlier in the morning amid worries about Trump’s trade war and whether it would cause a recession as economists fear. But it spiked immediately after Trump sent the social-media posting that investors have been waiting for.
A trader works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, US, on Wednesday, April 9, 2025. US stocks flickered between gains and losses as investors tried to navigate the market amid recession fears and a flurry of trade-related headlines, while some weighed buying the dip following steep declines in companies’ valuations. Photographer: Michael Nagle/BloombergCredit: Bloomberg
Trump said that because so many countries had “not retaliated” against his latest crank higher in tariffs, he said, “I have authorised a 90 day PAUSE, and a substantially lowered Reciprocal Tariff during this period, of 10 per cent, also effective immediately. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 2476 points, or 6.6 per cent, as of 1.35pm Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 9 per cent higher.
Trump, though, also said that he was raising tariffs even higher against China, up to 125 per cent.
Huge swings have become routine for financial markets worldwide recently, not just day to day but hour to hour, as investors struggle to game out what Trump’s trade war will do to the economy. On Tuesday, the S&P 500 careened between a gain of 4 per cent and a loss of 3 per cent for a second straight day of shocking reversals.
Wall Street’s latest moves came after Trump’s latest round of tariffs kicked in after midnight for imports from around the world. That included a 104 per cent tax on things coming from China, and the world’s second-largest economy quickly retaliated by saying it would raise tariffs on US goods to 84 per cent on Thursday.
“If the US insists on further escalating its economic and trade restrictions, China has the firm will and abundant means to take necessary countermeasures and fight to the end” the Ministry of Commerce said.
Such aggressive brinkmanship between the world’s two largest economies is raising fears that tariffs will stick around for a while, which economists and investors expect would create a recession.
