Just nowShareSaveTom EspinerBBC business reporterShareSaveGlobal stocks have sunk, a day after President Donald Trump announced sweeping new tariffs that are forecast to raise prices and weigh on growth in the US and abroad.Stock markets in the Asia-Pacific region fell for a second day, hot on the heels of the US S&P 500, which had its worst day since Covid crashed the economy in 2020. Nike, Apple and Target were among big consumer names worst hit, all of them sinking by more than 9%. At the White House, Trump told reporters the US economy would “boom” thanks to the minimum 10% tariff he plans to slap on global imports in the hope of boosting federal revenues and bringing American manufacturing home.The Republican president plans to hit products from dozens of other countries with far higher levies, including trade partners such as China and the European Union.China, which is facing an aggregate 54% tariff, and the EU, which faces duties of 20%, both vowed retaliation on Thursday. French President Emmanuel Macron called for European firms to suspend planned investment in the US.Tariffs are taxes on goods imported from other countries, and Trump’s plan that he announced on Wednesday would hike such duties to some of the highest levels in more than 100 years.The World Trade Organization said it was “deeply concerned”, estimating trade volumes could shrink as a result by 1% this year.Traders expressed concern that the tariffs could stoke inflation and stall growth. In early trading on Friday, Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 index fell by 1.8%, the Kospi in South Korea was around 1% lower and Australia’s ASX 200 dipped by 1.4%.On Thursday, the S&P 500 – which tracks 500 of the biggest American firms – plunged 4.8%, shedding roughly $2tn in value. The Dow Jones closed about 4% lower, while the Nasdaq tumbled roughly 6%. The US shares sell-off has been going on since mid-February amid trade war fears. Earlier, the UK’s FTSE 100 share index dropped 1.5% and other European markets also fell, echoing declines from Japan to Hong Kong.On Thursday at the White House, Trump doubled down on a high-stakes gambit aimed at reversing decades of US-led liberalisation that shaped the global trade order.”I think it’s going very well,” he said. “It was an operation like when a patient gets operated on, and it’s a big thing. I said this would exactly be the way it is.”He added: “The markets are going to boom. The stock is going to boom. The country is going to boom.”Trump also said he was open to negotiating with trade partners on the tariffs “if somebody said we’re going to give you something that’s so phenomenal”.On Thursday, Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney said that country would retaliate with a 25% levy on vehicles imported from the US.Trump last month imposed tariffs of 25% on Canada and Mexico, though he did not announce any new duties on Wednesday against the North American t …
