2025-04-03T15:38:35.000Z

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NEW YORK: Stock indexes tumbled, with the S&P 500 down more than 4 per cent in morning New York trading on Thursday (Apr 3), and the US dollar and oil prices also dropping as President Donald Trump’s drastic US trade tariffs stoked fears of a global recession and led investors to seek safe-haven assets like bonds and the yen. A new baseline 10 per cent tariff on imported goods plus some eye-watering reciprocal tariffs on dozens of countries that Trump said had unfair trade barriers left traders rattled by their severity. Investors fear a full-blown trade dispute could trigger a sharp global economic slowdown and drive up inflation, with the latest round of US trade tariffs hitting a world economy barely recovered from the post-pandemic inflation surge and dealing with geopolitical strife. The euro rallied more than 2 per cent against the dollar. Against the Japanese yen, the dollar weakened 2.51 per cent to ¥145.49. "This is how you sabotage the world’s economic engine while claiming to supercharge it," said Nigel Green, CEO of global financial advisory deVere Group. The Nasdaq was down more than 5 per cent, with technology-related shares among the day's biggest drags. Apple fell 8.5 per cent, hit by the tariffs on China - the base for much of its manufacturing. Amazon.com was down 7.8 per cent, Microsoft 2 per cent, and Nvidia 5.1 per cent. The losses come after trillions of dollars were already wiped off the "Magnificent Seven" tech giants this year as worries have mounted. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1,489.79 points, or 3.53 per cent, to 40,735.53, the S&P 500 dropped 228.84 points, or 4.04 per cent, to 5,442.13 and the Nasdaq Composite fell 915.44 points, or 5.20 per cent, to 16,685.61. MSCI's gauge of stocks across the globe fell 23.68 points, or 2.83 per cent, to 812.43. RECIPROCAL LEVY In Europe, the 27-country EU bloc now faces a 20 per cent reciprocal levy. The pan-European STOXX 600 index was down 2.59 per cent. Trump's levies impacted Asia particularly hard. China was hit with a 34 per cent reciprocal tariff, Japan 24 per cent, South Korea 25 per cent and Vietnam 46 per cent. Vietnamese stocks slumped 6.7 per cent in response. The Nikkei 225 index fell 2.8 per cent. Vietnam's Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh pledged to maintain the country's economic growth target of at least 8 per cent for this year, despite the US imposing its hefty tariff on the Southeast Asian nation's exports.