4th April 2025

Tariffs, Tariffs, Tariffs

April 2, 2025

• On April 2, the Trump administration announced a sweep of tariffs on over 180 countries, with a baseline 10% and an additional reciprocal tariff added to the value—Kazakhstan incurring a 27% tariff.

• The stock market lost $2.7 trillion on Thursday, and it is on track for its worst decline since March 2020.

US stocks and Dollar hurtle

• Since Thursday, the S&P 500 is down 4.7%, the NASDAQ composite -5.6%, followed by Apple's 8.5% nosedive; Brent Crude is down 6.8%, and the dollar is down more than 2% against the Euro

• This is a vote of no confidence in Trump from investors and a wider collapse in dollar-denominated assets.

• European stocks weren’t safe, with the STOXX Europe 600 index declining by 2.6% after a mass sell-off of exporting companies.

Bitcoin

• After an initial surge following Trump’s election and a peak of $88,000 on Wednesday, Bitcoin has now fallen below $82,000—down >12% since January 1.

Macron retaliates

• French President Macron, in an effort to counter the 20% tariffs on the EU alongside the European Commission, has urged local firms to “remain united, to be determined” and refrain from investments and one-off deals with Washington for tariff exemptions. 

Delusion?

• On Thursday, Trump wrote, “The prognosis is that the patient will be far stronger, bigger, better, and more resilient than ever before”, later adding, “I think it’s going very well”, and “The markets are going to boom….the country is going to boom”. 

• It remains to be seen if Trump can keep his promise, but the future looks bleak.

News written by Iskander Shyngyssov | Published by Zhangir Zhangaskin