Hedge fund crusader Bill Ackman, who backed Donald Trump with the zeal of a convert ahead of the 2024 US election, seems to be experiencing some buyer’s remorse.
Taking to X this morning as US equity futures plunged, he urged the president to pause his extraordinary 'Liberation Day' tariff plan, lest the US — and possibly the world — careens inexorably toward a “self-induced, economic nuclear winter”.
It’s not hard to see why the outspoken market tactician was breaking a sweat, despite his earlier suggestions that Trump’s punishing global tariffs were simply sophisticated dealmaking in motion. S&P and Dow futures were down 3.3% and 2.6% respectively. Circuit breaker trading freezes were triggered in both Japan and Taiwan. The ASX closed down 4.2%. All in all, the past few days of market activity represent the most violent market turmoil since the early days of the Covid pandemic.
Some of the chaos is born of uncertainty. As we mentioned in Friday’s newsletter, there seems to be a range of views represented in Trump’s inner circle as to what the tariff strategy even is.
