Stock markets in the United States have seen another day of losses as President Donald Trump’s so-called reciprocal tariffs continue to cause global economic uncertainty.At the close of markets on Friday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down by 5.5 percent, the Nasdaq Composite was down 5.8 percent, and the S&P 500 was down nearly 6 percent.
All told, the three indices saw their worst two-day stretch since March 2020 when the economic ravages of the COVID-19 pandemic took hold.
The sharp drops, which mirrored plunges in markets across the world, followed Trump’s announcement on Wednesday of wide-ranging reciprocal tariffs on nearly all trade partners. That included benchmark 10 percent tariffs on most partners, with specific tariffs as high as 50 percent on more than 60 countries.
Reporting from the New York Stock Exchange, Al Jazeera’s Kristen Saloomey said Friday’s tumble also came after China announced a 34-percent tariff on US goods, the most significant retaliation to date.
“This is all sparking fear of a global trade war and possible global recession, and that’s what we’re seeing play out here in the markets today,” she said. Advertisement
For his part, Trump remained defiant as he attended the LIV Golf tournament at his Florida course after spending the night at his Mar-a-Lago estate.
“TO THE MANY INVESTORS COMING INTO THE UNITED STATES AND INVESTING MASSIVE AMOUNTS OF MONEY, MY POLICIES WILL NEVER CHANGE,” he wrote on the Truth Social platform, which he owns.
He also hailed a new report showing the US added 228,000 jobs in Marc …
