Trump tariffs live: FTSE suffers biggest daily drop since Covid after China hits back

Both the S&P 500 and Dow Jones indexes also suffered their worst days since 2020 as US stocks tumbled again.

The S&P 500, which tracks the country’s leading listed companies, slid by as much as 3.6% to about 5,200, shortly after stock markets in New York opened.

This took the index down to its lowest level since August.

The Dow Jones, which tracks 30 large US companies, and the technology-focused Nasdaq index also dropped around 3%.

The FTSE-100 dropped 3.8 per cent – its worst day since 27 March 2020, as the Covid pandemic hit the UK.

After China announced it a 34% reciprocal tariff on imports of all US products, the index dropped by about 4%, later recovering a little before dipping again.

The Nasdaq looks set to confirm a bear market, as it is down more than 20 per cent from its record high.

The tech-heavy index hit a record closing high of 20,173.89 on December 16, but has struggled since the start of the year. Fears of a potential slowdown in AI spending had pushed it into correction territory earlier last month.

The index was last down 3.6 per cent on Friday.

Unless you happen to be an investor or trader who had shorted a lot of stocks before yesterday, it probably wasn’t an enjoyable experience watching some of the biggest and most well-known companies on the planet tumble ever-deeper into the red.

By the close of play in the US on Thursday, President Donald Trump’s previous-day announcement of global tariffs had wiped just shy of an estimated $2.5 trillion, or £1.9tn, off the total value of US stock markets in the space of a few hours.

For what is essentially a play at making his nation richer for the long term, it was quite the impact in the opposite direction – but Mr Trump remains steadfast in his beliefs that a longer-term gain will be made from his ploy of alienating most of the rest of the planet in business terms.

Our business and money editor Karl Matchett reports:

The Independent’s associate editor Sean O’Grady writes:

The markets, distressed as they are, have not yet fallen into a full-on crash. But only because they assume that such erratic policy-making will in due course be corrected and the tariffing watered down.

If not, then the valuations attached to the world’s largest corporations will have to fall, for the simple reason that they can no longer make things in the most efficient manner, and thus generate the returns they need to justify anyone buying their shares. There will be a tsunami of profit warnings in the months ahead.

Trump has not only upended the post-war rules-based international trading system, but the very concept of globalisation and the operations of every manufacturing, transportation, logistics and resources company on earth. Not far behind them will be the banks and investment houses that finance and are invested in them. And when the rest of us next see a valuation of our pension pots we will see the immediate and colossal impact. This is where it hits home.

It’s at times like these that the markets panic. It could be, as reported, that investors can’t quite believe what is happening, and that any American president could abandon free market-based economics for eighteenth-century mercantilism, and set about making America look like the 1960s again.

But what if he means it? What if he ramps the tariffs up again if countries retaliate? What if it escalates?

Canada’s total employment fell and the unemployment rate rose in March, new official data showed, as the uncertainty around US tariffs and their subsequent implementation forced companies to pause hiring and spurred some layoffs.

The country shed a net 32,600 jobs last month, in what marks the first decrease in more than three years. This was driven by a steep decline in full-time work, Statistics Canada said.

The employment decline followed largely flat job growth in February and a robust gain of 211,000 new jobs from November to January. The unemployment rate rose to 6.7 per cent in March from 6.6 per cent a month earlier.

“The wheels may be starting to fall off the Canadian labor market,” Andrew Grantham, senior economist at CIBC Capital Markets, wrote in a report. Analysts polled by Reuters had forecast a net job gain of 10,000 people and had estimated the unemployment rate to rise to 6.7 per cent.

The US economy added far more jobs than expected in March, prior to Donald Trump’s tariffs – which is likely to test the American labour market’s resilience in the months ahead.

The US Labour Department’s closely watched employment report on Friday showed nonfarm payrolls – which excludes those in agriculture, private households, and not-for-profits – increased by 228,000 jobs last month, after a downwardly revised 117,000 rise in February.

Economists polled by Reuters had forecast payrolls advancing by 135,000 jobs after a previously reported 151,000 rise in February. Estimates ranged from 50,000 to 185,000. Part of the rise in payrolls was a rebound after freezing temperatures curbed activity in January and February.

“This is a drop of good news in a sea of uncertainty, a footnote given the barrage of activities this week,” said Olu Sonola, head of US economic research at Fitch Ratings. “However, this is looking in the rear-view mirror, next month’s jobs report will be more consequential.”

Donald Trump has said Americans may feel “some pain” because of tariffs, but he has also said the long-term goals – including getting more manufacturing jobs back to the United States – are worth it. On Thursday, he likened the situation to a medical operation, where the US economy is the patient.

“For investors looking at their portfolios, it could have felt like an operation performed without anaesthesia,” Brian Jacobsen, chief economist at Annex Wealth Management, told Reuters.

But Jacobsen also said the next surprise for investors could be how quickly tariffs get negotiated down. “The speed of recovery will depend on how, and how quickly, officials negotiate,” he said.

After opening 3 per cent lower today, the tech-heavy Nasdaq has dropped more than 20 per cent from its all-time closing high touched in December – putting it on course to confirm a bear market.

Donald Trump has claimed that China “played it wrong” after Beijing retaliated against new US tariffs, unveiling countermeasures that included additional duties of 34 per cent on all US goods.

“China played it wrong, they panicked – the one thing they cannot afford to do!” Mr Trump wrote in all caps in post on his social media platform.

Earlier, the US president wrote, also in all caps: “To the many investors coming into the United States and investing massive amounts of money, my policies will never change. This is a great time to get rich, richer than ever before!!!”