{"id":306414,"date":"2025-04-07T06:30:01","date_gmt":"2025-04-07T06:30:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=306414"},"modified":"2025-04-08T07:04:54","modified_gmt":"2025-04-08T07:04:54","slug":"europe-and-asia-markets-plunge-as-trump-says-you-have-to-take-medicine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=306414","title":{"rendered":"Europe and Asia markets plunge as Trump says \u2018you have to take medicine\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Helen Davidson \u2013 The Guardian April 7, 2025<\/strong><\/h1>\n

Stock markets in Asia and Europe have fallen sharply on Monday after Donald Trump said foreign governments would have to pay \u201ca lot of money\u201d to lift sweeping tariffs that he characterised as \u201cmedicine\u201d.<\/p>\n

Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One late on Sunday, the US president indicated he was not concerned about market losses that have already wiped out nearly $6tn (\u00a35tn) in value from US stocks. \u201cI don\u2019t want anything to go down. But sometimes you have to take medicine to fix something,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Asian markets opened badly almost across the board on Monday morning, as concerns over a tariff-induced global recession continued to rip through markets.<\/p>\n

Japan\u2019s benchmark Nikkei 225 index tumbled 8%, and Hong Kong and Chinese stocks also dived, with Hong Kong\u2019s Hang Seng index down 12%. Shares in the Chinese tech companies Alibaba and Tencent fell more than 8%. In South Korea, trading on the Kospi index was halted for five minutes at 9.12am as stocks plummeted.<\/p>\n

In Taiwan Monday was the first day of trading since Trump announced the tariffs, due to a two-day holiday last week. The market fell almost 10% on the open, marking the largest one-day point and percentage loss on record. Falls were driven by TSMC and Foxconn, triggering circuit breakers.<\/p>\n

In Europe, stock markets plunged on opening. In London, the FTSE 100 fell by 488 points, or 6%, taking the index down to 7566 points, its lowest level since February 2024.<\/p>\n

Every share on the blue chip UK index fell, as miners, banks, and investment firms were among the top fallers.<\/p>\n

Germany\u2019s Dax opened down nearly 10% at the open, while in France the CAC 40 fell 4% and Italy\u2019s FTSE MIB was off nearly 6%.<\/p>\n

More than $160bn was wiped off the Australian share markets<\/a> in early trading. Treasurer Jim Chalmers said he expected Australia\u2019s GDP to \u201ctake a hit\u201d and for there to be an impact on local prices.<\/p>\n

Trump said he had spoken to leaders from Europe and Asia over the weekend, who hope to convince him to lower tariffs that are as high as 50% and due to take effect this week. \u201cThey are coming to the table. They want to talk but there\u2019s no talk unless they pay us a lot of money on a yearly basis,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s tariff announcement last week jolted economies around the world<\/a>, triggering retaliatory levies from China<\/a> and sparking fears of a global trade war and recession. On Sunday morning talkshows, Trump\u2019s top economic advisers sought to portray the tariffs as a savvy repositioning of the US in the global trade order. They also tried to minimise the economic shocks<\/a> from last week\u2019s tumultuous rollout. Wall Street stock futures opened sharply lower on Sunday, in a sign of further turbulence.<\/p>\n

The US Treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, said more than 50 nations had started negotiations with the US since last Wednesday\u2019s announcement.<\/p>\n

Bessent said there was \u201cno reason\u201d to anticipate a recession, citing stronger-than-anticipated US jobs growth last month, before the tariffs were announced.<\/p>\n

Tony Sycamore, a market analyst at IG in Sydney, said: \u201cThings have gone from bad to worse this morning. The lack of reaction from Trump and from Bessent, in terms of their concern levels appearing to be very, very low in terms of the market dislocation. If there isn\u2019t some sort of walking back of the announcements, then we\u2019re heading for a liquidity event and liquidity will get sucked out of these markets big time across all asset classes.\u201d<\/p>\n

JP Morgan economists estimate the tariffs will result in full-year US gross domestic product declining by 0.3%, down from an earlier estimate of 1.3% growth, and that the unemployment rate will climb to 5.3% from 4.2% now.<\/p>\n

The US president spent the weekend in Florida, playing golf and posting a video of his swing to social media on Sunday.<\/p>\n

US customs agents began collecting Trump\u2019s unilateral 10% tariff on all imports from many countries on Saturday. Higher \u201creciprocal\u201d tariff rates of 11% to 50% on individual countries are due to take effect on Wednesday at 12.01am EDT (4.01am GMT).<\/p>\n

The billionaire investor Bill Ackman, who supported Trump during last year\u2019s presidential race urged him to pause his tariffs, warned<\/a> that it would be \u201ceconomic nuclear war\u201d for the US to impose its new retaliatory tariffs on many trading partners on 9 April.<\/p>\n

Some governments have already signalled a willingness to engage with the US to avoid the duties.<\/p>\n

In his first significant intervention since the US ushered in a new economic era last week, the UK prime minister, Keir Starmer, said the government would step in to support key British industries<\/a>.<\/p>\n

He is to announce plans to give carmakers more flexibility over how they meet a target to stop sales of new petrol and diesel cars by 2030. Other sectors to be hit by Trump\u2019s tariffs are expected to receive support later in the week, with life sciences likely to be among them.<\/p>\n

Tariff-stunned markets face another week of potential turmoil after the worst week for US stocks since the onset of the Covid-19 crisis<\/a> five years ago.<\/p>\n

The White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett denied that the tariffs were part of a Trump strategy to crash financial markets to pressure the US Federal Reserve to cut interest rates. He said there would be no \u201cpolitical coercion\u201d of the central bank.<\/p>\n

With Reuters<\/em><\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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