'Unambiguously bad'
Donald Trump rattled markets by doing exactly what he said he'd do — impose steep tariffs on some of his country's biggest trading partners.
With a single swipe of his executive pen, Donald Trump has tested the notion that his return to power would be unquestionably positive for global stocks and other risk assets.
Equity indices across the Asia-Pacific region were a sea of red on Monday, with the ASX down 2% as Trump made good on his threat to impose steep tariffs on America’s three largest trading partners — Canada, Mexico and China.
“This is unambiguously bad,” Stephen Miller, chief strategist at $10 billion fund manager GSFM told Capital Brief. “What markets are telling us is this is bad for the world economy, and this is potentially a harbinger — and I emphasise potentially — of a global recession later in 2025 and 2026.”
Of course, it remains to be seen whether Wall Street follows Asia’s lead (the US market has been known to shrug off moves in other parts of the world). Nevertheless, Monday’s selloff represents a plot twist in the 'Trump rally' narrative that has dominated markets in the wake of his re-election.
