President Trump announces 25% tariffs will be imposed from today on imports from Canada and Mexico, sending stock markets and many commodities sharply lower.
- Yet again the news is dominated by President Trump, who announced a few hours ago that negotiations with Canada and Mexico over proposed tariffs had run out of road, so new 25% tariffs on imports into the USA from these countries will be imposed starting today. The announcement sent an already weak stock market tumbling, with US equities – especially tech stocks – hit hard. The NASDAQ 100 Index closed more than 2.5% lower. Stock markets have seen a rebound this morning in China, but the US market continues to look bearish. The Canadian Dollar and Mexican Peso are weakening against the US Dollar.
- President Trump also announced that he plans to double the tariff on Chinese imports from 10% to 20%, although a date for that has yet to be given. The threat does not seem to be halting the Chinese stock market, which is looking buoyant and rising.
- Both Canada and Mexico have said they will be imposing retaliatory tariffs against imports from the USA. Mexico has yet to outline any details about how this will be done, but Canada has ordered the imposition of a 25% against $30 billion worth of US imports today, and the full tariff will be imposed on all imports on 2nd April.
- A report in Chinese state-controlled media hinted that China may impose tariffs on food imports from the USA, which could hit an already weak US soft commodities market.
- In the Forex market, the Japanese Yen has been the strongest major currency since today’s Tokyo open, while the Australian Dollar has been the weakest, putting the AUD/JPY currency cross in focus. This is logical as the AUD is a key risk-on currency while the Japanese Yen has tended to at as a risk-off haven in recent years. The Canadian Dollar and Mexican Dollar are weak, putting the USD/CAD and USD/MXN in focus too.
- Gold is holding up relatively well despite widespread strong selloffs in commodities, strongly outperforming Silver despite the typical strongly positive correlation between the two precious metals. However, it is now trading back above the round number at $2,900 although it is still well off its record high made recently above $2,950.
- Bitcoin is falling and looking weak.
- The Trump administration has announced it will end all military aid to Ukraine.
- There will be a release of Australian GDP data at 12:30am London time.
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