U.S. President Donald Trump gestures on the day of his remarks on tariffs in the Rose Garden at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., April 2, 2025. REUTERS/Carlos Barria
President Donald Trump's announcement of new tariffs on what he is calling "Liberation Day" has already sent stock futures into a tumble.
The president's new tariffs, which come after aggressive further rounds of trade barriers on a number of other countries including allied nations the U.S. has trade deals with, include 34 percent new tariffs on China, 24 percent new tariffs on Japan, and 26 percent new tariffs on India; worldwide, tariffs on products from other countries are going up anywhere from 10 percent to 49 percent.
According to MarketWatch, "S&P 500 futures were off by 58 points, or 1.1%, at 5,618; Nasdaq-100 futures were down 267 points, or 1.4%, at 19,341; [and] Dow futures were down by 163 points, or 0.4%, at 42,119."
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Trump has defended his tariffs as necessary to bring American jobs back home from overseas; economists have warned that the offshoring and automation that reduced manufacturing jobs in the U.S. — a key fixation of Trump's — cannot be reversed by simply taxing foreign goods, and that domestic goods will become more expensive as well as they face less competition and greater input costs from foreign materials and parts.
Former Justice Department head of public affairs and communications strategist Xochitl Hinojosa called the plunge in stock futures a "warning sign" for the economy on CNN as Trump delivered his speech touting his trade restrictions.