Wall Street trading is now over after stock markets were pounded for the second day in a row over Donald Trump’s tariffs. In the UK, top stocks have also continued to slide – with the FTSE suffering its worst day of trading in five years. Listen to Trump 100 analysis as you scroll.
Friday 4 April 2025 23:52, UK
Live reporting by Mark Wyatt
For the second day running, US markets have plummeted in response to the widespread global tariffs Donald Trump announced on Wednesday.
A tariff is effectively a tax on imported goods – the White House believes the US has been on the wrong end of these for decades and Trump claims his hope is that his policy will encourage companies to manufacture inside the US and thus „make America wealthy again“.
But the scale of the US president’s actions has caused chaos in the global economy.
European and Asian markets have suffered notable falls – but the US was worst hit, with Wall Street closing to a sea of red today following yesterday’s rout – the worst day in US markets since the pandemic.
The UK’s leading stock market, the FTSE 100, also suffered its worst daily drop in more than five years, closing 4.95% down, a level not seen since March 2020.
Analysts estimate that around $4.9trn (£3.8trn) has already been wiped off the value of the global stock market since Wednesday evening.
Governments around the world are broadly adopting two approaches – hitting back with counter tariffs, or waiting to see how this settles.
China is in the former camp, today announcing it was responding to Trump’s 34% tariff with its own levy of the same percentage on US imports.
Trump said Beijing had „played it wrong“ and „panicked“ in its response, but later said he hoped to „continue working in good faith“ with the country, adding a deal over TikTok could be a path to relieve tariffs on Beijing.
Watch US correspondents Mark Stone and Martha Kelner discussing all these developments in our latest Trump 100 podcast…
We’ll be back tomorrow with more of the latest reaction and fallout to Donald Trump’s tariffs and the global trade wars being sparked as a result.
Before then, here’s a rundown of what’s been happening today:
If you’d like to read more in depth analysis on Trump’s tariffs from our team of experts, you can here:
Betting markets that let people wager on current events are seeing a spike in expectations for a recession this year.
Kalshi, one of the most popular betting markets, now prices the chance of a recession at 62% — quite close to the 60% that JPMorgan analysts recently put out. That’s up from about 42% before Donald Trump’s tariff announcement.
At Polymarket, the chance of a recession is priced at 56%, also sharply higher since the tariff news.
Klarna and StubHub are delaying plans to go public after Donald Trump’s tariff announcement sent shock waves through US markets.
The companies put their long-awaited debuts on pause because of market turbulence, according to a source familiar with the matter. Neither company has a timeline for when it will pursue an offering, the person said.
Both companies had filed their initial public offering prospectuses in recent weeks.
The White House sent a press release after the end of US trading celebrating Donald Trump’s „WEEK 11 WINS“ and praising the president for unleashing „economic prosperity.“
The release landed minutes after all three major US benchmarks continued their declines, with all down more than 5% to confirm the worst week of US trading in five years (see 21.04 post).
„It was another highly successful week for the American people as President Donald J. Trump continues his relentless pursuit of strength, prosperity, and peace – and lays the foundation for America to be the global powerhouse for generations to come,“ the White House said.
Trump „implemented his bold plan for reciprocal trade as he seeks to reverse the decades of globalisation that has decimated our industrial base,“ it said.
The US economy is being crashed by „Republican incompetence“ and a recession is on its way thanks to Donald Trump’s tariffs, Democrats say.
In a post on X, Democrats called Trump’s trade policies „reckless“.
We’ve seen how the richest companies in the US have had billions shaved off their prices by Donald Trump’s tariffs, but what about the individuals behind them?
Elon Musk, Trump’s close friend and owner of Tesla, SpaceX and X, lost $11bn the day after tariffs came into force, according to Bloomberg.
With Wall Street in meltdown, it would be fair to wonder where exactly Donald Trump is right now.
As it turns out, he’s been enjoying one of his favourite pastimes (golf, not sending the global economy into a tailspin).
Trump woke up at Mar-a-Lago this morning and headed to his nearby course a few miles away after writing on social media that „THIS IS A GREAT TIME TO GET RICH“.
His appearance on the fairways hasn’t gone down well in Washington, especially with Democrats.
Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer said Trump’s trip „shows the disconnect from this president and what we’re seeing with these tariffs“.
„I don’t know if he’s playing today or if he’s caddying for somebody, I don’t know if anyone trusts him to caddy, but that’s what he’s up to,“ he added.
Schumer said he and other Democrats will try to force a vote on an amendment to rescind certain tariffs.
Wall Street trading is now over after stock markets were pounded for the second day in a row over Donald Trump’s tariffs.
China retaliated with new tariffs on US goods, sparking fears of a global trade war that will lead to a recession.
Each of the three major US benchmarks continued their declines, with all down more than 5% to confirm the worst week of US trading in five years.
Here’s a tally of the preliminary damage:
The market sell-off started yesterday as huge firms such as Nike, Apple and Amazon saw billions wiped off their share prices in response to Trump’s tariff announcement.
Today, technology stocks led the bleeding, with shares of AI bellwether Nvidia pulling back 7% while Tesla fell 10%. Both companies have large exposure to China and are among the hardest hit by retaliatory tariffs.
Falls have also moved into sectors that would typically not face direct impact of tariffs, such as healthcare and utilities.
Analysts estimate that around $4.9trn (£3.8trn) has already been wiped off the value of the global stock market since Wednesday evening.
As Wall Street limps towards the finish line for Friday trading, Donald Trump has delivered a defiant statement to his followers on Truth Social.
The stock market plunge has more to do with the emergence of China’s DeepSeek AI tool earlier this year than it does with Donald Trump’s tariff policies.
That’s according to US treasury secretary Scott Bessent, who told right-wing journalist Tucker Carlson that market declines started when Beijing announced DeepSeek in January.
„I’d say it’s more a Mag 7 problem, not a MAGA problem,“ he said.
Bessent was referring to the shares of the „Magnificent 7“ – the seven high-performing tech stocks that helped drive the market higher before its recent selloff.
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Tariffs latest: Major US stock markets close after worst week's trading in five years – Sky News
