US stocks tumbled on Thursday as the White House clarified that the tariff rate on Chinese imports has risen to 145 per cent, up from the 125 per cent figure that was communicated on Wednesday.
At noon, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down nearly 1,700 points, or more than 4 per cent; the S&P 500 slid 5 per cent; and Nasdaq had fallen nearly 6 per cent.
The markets were giving back large portions of the gains they had made in the Wednesday’s historic rally, when Trump backed down on his most punishing tariffs on nations he called the “worst offenders” by postponing them for 90 days, though the baseline 10 per cent tariffs on goods from all US trading partners that he announced last week remain in effect.
At the same time, he announced the 125 per cent tariffs on China and said they would go into effect immediately.
Confirmation of the higher rate is likely to escalate the stand-off between Washington and Beijing, which became the main target of the Trump administration’s efforts to reverse America’s overall trade deficit.
