China does not like tariffs, but big money in America likes them even less. If one thing has become clear amid the fog of the past week, it is that what will contain Donald Trump are the financial markets.
China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi, attacked Trump on Friday for his imposition of tariffs, adding that major powers ‘should not bully the weak’. While people in Taiwan might find that latter comment a bit rich, his line on tariffs squares with the reaction on Wall Street. The markets do not like it.
This week has seen the Nasdaq Composite index of high-technology companies move into a ‘correction’ – a 10 per cent fall from its peak. Only one of the Magnificent Seven high-tech giants, Meta Platforms (owner of Facebook), is up this year, and though Apple, the most valuable of the lot, has held up reasonably well, the shares of Tesla are now down by nearly a third.
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