It was set to be a relatively quiet day, with stock futures unchanged, yields modestly lower, bitcoin just shy of record highs… and then Trump woke up.
First, in a post on his Truth Social just after 7:20am ET, the clearly angry president said that unless iPhone that are sold in the US are not also built in the US, then a “Tariff of at least 25% must be paid by Apple to the U.S.”
The comment immediately wiped out tens of billions in value from AAPL stock, which tumbled $10 to $193, or more than 4%…
… and while the news also dragged broader futures lower, Trump saved his second market punishment for 25 minutes later when at 7:45am ET, the president doubled down on his post-awakening stream of Truth Social consciousness and wrote that he is “recommending a straight 50% Tariff on the European Union, starting on June 1, 2025. There is no Tariff if the product is built or manufactured in the United States.”
His ire was likely triggered by overnight reports that EU talks with the US had gone nowhere, which is why he said that Europe’s “powerful Trade Barriers, Vat Taxes, ridiculous Corporate Penalties, Non-Monetary Trade Barriers, Monetary Manipulations, unfair and unjustified lawsuits against Americans Companies, and more, have led to a Trade Deficit with the U.S. of more than $250,000,000 [sic] a year, a number which is totally unacceptable.”
The post slammed S&P futures which were already reeling from the AAPL news, and spoos tumbled about 100 points lower from where they were just minutes earlier.
The news also slammed bond yields, the euro, crude, and bitcoin…
… while gold was the only asset that rose on the renewed trade war escalation.
Developing…
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