by Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
NEW YORK/BEIJING/BUDAPEST (Worthy News) – Major stock indexes sank in Asia Wednesday, and similar moves were due in Europe as U.S. President Donald J. Trump’s eye-watering 104 percent tariffs on China took effect.
He also imposed more tariffs on nearly 100 other nations, hiking U.S. duties to the highest level since before World War II and sparking a race among many targeted nations to renegotiate terms of trade with the U.S.
Within an hour of the tariffs taking off, a savage selloff in Treasuries sparked fears foreign funds were fleeing U.S. assets.
The U.S. dollar fell against safe-haven currencies, but the Chinese yuan hovered just above the lowest level since late 2007 as Beijing allowed the currency to depreciate further, making its products cheaper amid the sharp escalation in what seemed an all-out trade war with the U.S.
The pain is likely to spread to Europe, too, with the EUROSTOXX 50 futures index pointing to a 3.7 percent drop in the stock market.
Both S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq futures predicted that stock prices would drop by 1.6 percent.
Few assets were spared recession fears engulfing markets, with oil prices diving almost 4 percent.
TRUMP LEVIES
The levies are part of what Trump has called his reciprocal tariff regime, which targets nations his administration considers bad trade actors.
Many Southeast Asian nations were hardest hit, with Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia receiving tariff hikes of over 45 percent. China will receive an 84 percent tariff hike, putting Trump’s tariffs on all Chinese imports at 104 percent.
Including levies on certain products from before Trump’s second term, the average tariff rate on China is estimated at around 125 percent.
Trump’s team has said that countries may be able to negotiate lower tariffs by decreasing their duties and ending non-tariff barriers on U.S. goods, but no deals have yet been reached.
Amid signs of an escalating global trade war, New Zealand’s central bank lowered interest rates, making it one of the first central banks to respond to the economic threat.
On Wednesday, the Reserve Bank of New Zealand brought its official cash rate to 3.50 percent from 3.75 percent and left the door open to further cuts “as the extent and effect of tariff policies become clearer.”
It said the Trump administration’s trade policies could slow global growth soon.
However, U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said last week that America’s central bank doesn’t need to rush to lower rates. He indicated that a cut isn’t on the table at its May meeting and that the Fed would know more “as the months go by.”
Copyright 1999-2026 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.
Latest News from Worthy News
President Donald Trump abruptly canceled planned U.S. strikes against Iran on Thursday, saying a multinational agreement to end the conflict had been approved by top Iranian leadership and was awaiting final documents and a formal signing.
Federal authorities said Thursday they have accounted for 146,000 unaccompanied migrant children who entered the United States during former President Joe Biden’s administration, while roughly 300,000 minors remain unaccounted for, amid allegations that many vulnerable children were placed with fraudulent sponsors and exposed to abuse, labor exploitation, and sex trafficking.
Congress left Washington without renewing Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, allowing a key foreign surveillance authority used to track foreign terrorists and national security threats to expire Friday.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on June 11 temporarily allowed President Donald Trump’s 10 percent global tariffs to remain in effect, extending a pause on a lower court ruling that had struck down the duties as unlawful.
Dutch police detained a young man l man after four people, including three children, were killed when a car struck a group of cyclists during a school outing near the Belgian border on Thursday, officials said.
The leaders of Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia are expected to meet this month amid growing debate within the European Union over how future member states should be admitted and monitored.
China has condemned the European Union’s ban on public funding for Chinese-made solar inverters, a move that analysts say could affect more than a fifth of new solar capacity and complicate efforts to meet the bloc’s self-imposed “climate targets.”