Tariffs latest: US Dow Jones index suffers biggest fall since 2020, as Trump insists ‘markets are going to boom’
Investors in FTSE 100 continue to sell amid largest economic disorder since pandemic
By Ed Clowes, business reporter
The UK’s most important stock index started the day negatively on Friday, falling more than 0.6% in response to Donald Trump’s sweeping trade tariffs.
Over the first 30 minutes of trading, investors in the FTSE 100 continued to sell as they processed the largest economic disorder since the pandemic.
It is now sitting at its lowest level since mid-January.
The index, which includes the likes of Vodafone, NatWest, and Shell, dropped nearly 2% yesterday, along with most stock markets around the world.
Despite the UK being less hard hit by Trump’s tariffs than many of its counterparts in Europe and Asia, economists are now warning that the risk of a global recession has risen sharply.
On Wall Street, nearly $2.5trn was wiped from the S&P 500 in the US, which lost around 5% on its worst day since 2020, while the Nasdaq sank 6%.
Household names such as Dell, Apple and Ralph Lauren were among the big fallers.
Despite that, Trump promised that the markets were “going to boom”.
