The US president has explained the sudden tariff pause after telling Americans to \u201cbe cool\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
President Donald Trump has admitted that his decision to delay further tariff hikes was driven in part by a sharp downturn in US financial markets, saying he was closely monitoring investor sentiment as people grew too \u201cyippy\u201d and \u201cafraid\u201d before announcing a 90-day freeze.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On Wednesday morning, Trump urged Americans to \u201cbe cool\u201d and told investors that \u201cthis is a great time to buy,\u201d after US markets lost more than $1.5 trillion in capitalization the day before. The sell-off came ahead of the implementation of a 104% tariff on Chinese imports and sweeping new levies on dozens of other countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Just hours later, the president announced his decision to keep most tariffs at a \u201cbaseline\u201d 10 percent \u2013 except for China, which saw its rate raised even further to 125 percent. Speaking to reporters later that day, Trump said he had been tracking the markets closely before taking action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI was watching the bond market. The bond market is very tricky. I was watching it. But if you look at it now, it\u2019s… it\u2019s beautiful,\u201d he said. \u201cBut, yeah, I saw last night where people were getting a little queasy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I thought that people were jumping a little bit out of line. They were getting yippy, you know? They were getting a little bit yippy, a little bit\u2026 afraid.<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Trump\u2019s announcement triggered a historic rally on US stock markets. The S&P 500 closed up 9.5 percent \u2013 its biggest gain since 2008. The Dow Jones rose 7.9 percent, marking its best day since 2020, while the Nasdaq soared 12 percent, its largest single-day increase in 24 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While Wednesday\u2019s surge added over $5 trillion in market value, US markets have yet to fully recover losses sustained since the president launched the tariff war last week. Still, Trump insisted his \u201creciprocal\u201d trade actions marked a turning point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe big move wasn\u2019t what I did today. The big move was what I did on Liberation Day. We had Liberation Day in America. We were liberated from all of the horrible trade deals that were made,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Asked whether certain American companies could be granted exemptions during the 90-day period, Trump said the administration would evaluate requests on a case-by-case basis. \u201cSome [companies] get hit a little bit harder, and we\u2019ll take a look at that \u2013 just instinctively, more than anything else,\u201d he said. \u201cYou almost can\u2019t take a pencil to paper. It\u2019s really more of an instinct.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Trump also cautioned that the situation remains fluid, adding that \u201cnothing is over yet,\u201d with dozens of countries \u2013 including China \u2013 now seeking to secure \u201cfair\u201d deals with the United States to avoid the full impact of the levies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n