Stocks surge after 90-day pause announced for most countries

China’s State Administration Council said 84% tariffs against U.S. imports took effect at 12:01 a.m. Thursday.

Goods shipped to China that left before 12:01 a.m. and are received before midnight Sunday won’t be subjected to the tariff, China said.

China levied retaliatory tariffs in response to tariffs Trump imposed Wednesday, which raise the total duties on Chinese imports to 125%.

Acting South Korean President Han Duck-soo said the country must negotiate to escape tariffs after Trump paused most levies Wednesday.

“Over the next 90 days, we must make progress in all negotiations to escape the burden of tariffs, and we must put in even greater effort,” Han said at a Cabinet meeting Thursday local time, his office said.

“As a country like South Korea, which depends heavily on trade for its growth and development, I urge all ministers to put in special efforts and show determination,” Han said, according to his office.

Trump announced Wednesday he was pausing most of the tariffs for 90 days.

The owner of a California home decor and plant shop said that even in dealing locally, the sourcing of goods from China is impossible to avoid.

“Even when I’m buying local companies, local small businesses, there are things that are in China,” Kate Nelson, owner of the Greenwood Shop, said on NBC News Now.

Trump yesterday imposed, and then suspended, sweeping tariffs on countries around the world but left them in place — and increased them to 125% — for China. Even with the latest suspension, though, a 10% across-the-board tariff that Trump imposed last week will remain.

The levies, Nelson said, will greatly affect her business.

“It’s really difficult, because I look at my wholesale costs, and that would double,” Nelson said. “I don’t know how to do that. That math and having consumers pay for it — I don't know how we do that.” 

China has responded to Trump’s tariffs with tariffs on U.S. goods. It announced an extra tariff that brings the total to 84%.

Japan’s chief Cabinet secretary, Yoshimasa Hayashi, said Thursday local time that the government was pleased Trump suspended some of the threatened tariffs — but it urged continued review.

“We would first like to carefully examine the details of what will be announced in the coming days,” Hayashi said.

“We have explained our concerns at various levels and have urged for the reconsideration of these measures, and so we take this recent announcement by the U.S. government positively,” he told reporters at a briefing.

“We will continue to strongly urge the United Staes to review its reciprocal tariffs and their levies on steel and aluminum products, as well as automobiles and auto parts,” he said.

Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and other Democrats on Capitol Hill raised questions today about Trump’s reversal on tariffs — after days of administration insistence that they would stay — which sent the markets shooting up.

“Who in the administration knew about Trump’s latest tariff flip flop ahead of time? Did anyone buy or sell stocks, and profit at the public’s expense?” Schiff posted on social media.

“I’m writing to the White House — the public has a right to know,” he said.

Progressive Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., said on X: “Any member of Congress who purchased stocks in the last 48 hours should probably disclose that now.”

Japan’s Nikkei index was up around 8% at 11 a.m. Thursday local time (10 p.m. tonight ET) after Trump’s reversal on most global tariffs.

The Kospi index in South Korea was up 5½%, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index was up more than 4% and Shanghai's SSE Composite Index was up about 1.6%.

Australia’s ASX 200 was up 4¾% shortly after 12 p.m. local time there.

Trump signed an executive order today removing restrictions on water pressure for showerheads, toilets, dishwashers and other household appliances. The order directs the energy secretary to rescind Obama- and Biden-era rules limiting showerhead water pressure.

Trump joked as he signed the order that reduced water flow was interfering with his hair routine.

"In my case, I like to take a nice shower to take care of my beautiful hair for 15 minutes till it gets wet. It comes out, drip, drip, drip. It’s ridiculous," he said.

"And what you do is you end up washing your hands five times longer. So it’s the same water, and we’re going to open it up so that people can live, and we’re going to hopefully have Congress approve it so it’s memorialized," he added.

“Liberation Day” just gave way to Capitulation Day.

Trump pulled back today on a series of harsh tariffs targeting friends and foes alike in an audacious bid to remake the global economic order.

Trump’s early afternoon announcement followed a harrowing week in which Republican lawmakers and confidants privately warned him that the tariffs could wreck the economy. His own aides had quietly raised alarms about the financial markets before he suspended a tariff regime that he had unveiled with a flourish just one week earlier in a Rose Garden ceremony.

The stock market rose immediately after the about-face, ending days of losses that have forced older Americans who’ve been sinking their savings into 401(k)s to rethink their retirement plans.

Read the full story here.

A federal judge today temporarily lifted a 2021 order governing the release of government materials related to the Jan. 6 riot.

Chief U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg of the Washington, D.C., Circuit granted a Jan. 6 defendant’s motion to lift a protective order that has restricted the release of discovery materials tied to the attack on the Capitol after the Justice Department failed to respond. Boasberg later put his order on pause after federal prosecutors asked for more time to respond to the motion.

Roger Roots, an attorney for Jan. 6 defendant Ryan Zick, asked Boasberg last month to lift the 2021 protective order. Roots, who represented several Jan. 6 defendants, including a member of the Proud Boys, had asked the court to lift the order and require that “the government’s discovery databases Evidence.com and Relativity be maintained and made available to the public, for present and future research and transparency.”

Prosecutors failed to respond to the motion, and Boasberg granted the motion to lift the protective order. The Justice Department then asked him to pause it.

As Trump ramps up attacks on the judiciary, the Republican-led House voted today to limit the ability of district court judges to issue the nationwide injunctions that have hampered some of his executive actions.

The vote was 219-213, with just one Republican, Mike Turner of Ohio, joining all Democrats in opposing it. The bill now heads to the Senate, where it would almost certainly be blocked by a Democratic filibuster if it were brought to the floor.

Trump and many of his allies on the far right had been pushing House Republicans to take a more extreme step and attempt to impeach judges who stood in his way.

The “No Rogue Rulings Act,” authored by Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., doesn’t go that far, but it allows House Republicans to voice their support for Trump on the issue while avoiding politically perilous impeachment votes that would be all but doomed to fail.

Read the full story here.

House Republican leaders canceled plans to vote on a revised budget blueprint tonight to begin work on Trump’s sweeping legislative agenda as a key bloc of hard-line conservatives threatened to tank the measure.

Instead of facing an embarrassing defeat on the House floor, Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., opted to delay the vote — after having voiced optimism throughout the day that he’d find enough support in the narrowly divided House. But a series of last-minute meetings with the holdouts, as well as public pressure from Trump, failed to produce the necessary breakthrough.

Johnson said he would try to bring the budget resolution to the floor tomorrow, instead.

“This has been a very constructive process,” Johnson said. “We’re working through — we want all members to be not just comfortable with but, but happy about the final product.”

Read the full story here.

Trump today directed federal agencies to revoke the security clearances and review the activities of two high-level former government officials who questioned his election fraud claims and his conduct in his first term.

Christopher Krebs, the former head of the federal government’s top cybersecurity agency, said the 2020 elections were won by Joe Biden, contradicting Trump’s claim that the election was stolen.

Miles Taylor, a former Department of Homeland Security official, wrote an anonymous memoir that criticized Trump’s handling of classified documents and other conduct during his first term.

One memorandum signed by Trump directed the attorney general and the homeland security secretary to “take all appropriate action to review” Krebs’ activities. Another directed the homeland security secretary to review Taylor’s activities as a government employee.

Read the full story here.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney weighed in on Trump's 90-day tariff pause on social media, calling it "a welcome reprieve for the global economy" and saying he would quickly begin trade negotiations with the United States.

"As President Trump and I have agreed, the U.S. President and the Canadian Prime Minister will commence negotiations on a new economic and security relationship immediately," Carney wrote on X.

Carney also referred to Trump's claim that more than 75 trading partners had contacted the United States to “discuss” trade issues, saying it "will likely result in a fundamental restructuring of the global trading system."

In the wake of Trump’s announcement that he pausing country-by-country tariffs for 90 days, some experts — as well as critics of Trump and social media users — are raising questions about a statement he posted earlier in the day that may have indicated the massive sell-off in stocks in recent days was coming to an end.

Read the full story here.

The Senate today confirmed Ronald Johnson, Trump's pick for U.S. ambassador to Mexico, in a party-line vote during a fraught time in the relationship between the two countries.

Johnson, a former CIA officer, was the U.S. ambassador to El Salvador during Trump's first term. Trump has repeatedly threatened Mexico with tariffs and clashed with Mexican officials over his immigration policies.

NBC News reported yesterday that the Trump administration has been weighing launching drone strikes on drug cartels operating inside Mexico.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum later told reporters: “We reject any form of intervention or interference. That’s been very clear. Mexico coordinates and collaborates but does not subordinate itself."

Trump’s market-moving Truth Social post this afternoon was spurred primarily by two factors: deep concern — bordering on panic — from his top economic officials about the bond markets and the sheer volume of incoming requests from countries to negotiate new trade deals with him directly.

A senior administration official said Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick — not always allies in the various tariff debates at the White House — presented a united front to Trump today urging a pause over concerns about the bond markets. Lutnick said on X that they then sat with him in the Oval Office while he composed his post.

The prospect of personally negotiating trade deals with a long line of global leaders also appealed to Trump, according to the senior administration official.

Rep Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., said today that she was honored to take on a House leadership position after Trump pulled her nomination to be U.N. ambassador last month.

“I am honored to be appointed Chairwoman of House Republican Leadership to lead House Republicans in implementing President Donald Trump’s mandate," she said in a statement.

Stefanik said she would also continue her work as a senior member of several House panels, including the Intelligence, Armed Services and Education and the Workforce committees.

Trump reversed Stefanik's nomination for U.N. ambassador after it was delayed amid concerns over a narrow Republican majority in the House.

The Senate voted 51-45 to confirm Miami-Dade County Commission member Kevin Cabrera to be U.S. ambassador to Panama.

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, of New Hampshire, was the only Democrat to vote in favor of Cabrera's nomination. No Republicans voted against it. Sens. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., Markwayne Mullin R-Okla., Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Tommy Tuberville, R-Ark., missed the vote.

“Thank you, President Trump, and members of the United States Senate,” Cabrera wrote on X after the vote.

NBC News has reported that the White House directed the U.S. military to explore options to boost American troops in Panama as part of Trump's effort to claim the Panama Canal.

Trump said his tariffs on China, which jumped to 125% today, have left a deal for TikTok’s owner to find a non-Chinese buyer for the app in a position of "wait to see."

“Right now, China is not exactly thrilled about signing it,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “We have a deal with some very good people, some very rich companies that would do a great job with it, but we’re gonna have to wait to see what’s going to happen with China.”

ByteDance, the Chinese company that owns TikTok, must find a non-Chinese buyer or the app will be banned in the United States under a federal law passed last year. Trump last week extended the deadline by 75 days shortly after he announced sweeping tariffs.

Trump, who hiked tariffs on China even as he paused massive increases on most other countries, said that Beijing has not treated the Washington fairly but that he remains open to meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping and likes and respects him. “He’s a friend of mine,” Trump said.

The Supreme Court today ordered that, for now, Trump is not required to reinstate two members of independent federal agencies he wants to fire.

The provisional decision affects Gwynne Wilcox, a member of the National Labor Relations Board, and Cathy Harris, a member of the Merit Systems Protection Board.

Chief Justice John Roberts issued an order that temporarily blocked lower court rulings that said the two officials should be reinstated.

The court will decide what next steps to take after it hears from lawyers for the two ousted officials.

Read the full story here.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s attempt to topple Republican Sen. John Cornyn in a Senate primary next year kicks off one of the most intense contests of the 2026 elections — a Republican-versus-Republican battle between two men who have been sparring for years and vying for Trump’s attention.

Cornyn is a fixture of the Republican Party in Texas, serving in its highest offices for more than 30 years and becoming a key voice on Capitol Hill. Paxton, the third-term attorney general who survived a bipartisan impeachment last year in part thanks to support from Trump and conservative activist allies, believes there’s an opening to cut Cornyn down from the right.

Now, both sides are aligning themselves with Trump amid the possibility of an endorsement that could tip the primary.

Read the full story here.

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat, is in the Oval Office with Trump as he signs executive orders this afternoon.

The two are working together to keep open the Selfridge Air Base in Michigan, Trump said.

“She’s really done an excellent job,” Trump said, calling Whitmer “a very good person.”

Trump emphasized "flexibility" when he was asked about his pause on higher tariffs after having said he did not plan to do so.

"You have to have flexibility," Trump told reporters at the White House.

The White House said yesterday that Trump was "not considering an extension or delay," and Trump appeared to dig in this morning, saying on Truth Social that people need to "BE COOL."

Trump today also highlighted improvements in the stock market, after several days of fallout over the impending tariffs, a stretch he referred to as "pretty glum."

Former first lady Michelle Obama in a podcast released yesterday emphasized making her own decisions and thinking about spending her time — even when people float unfounded rumors. Women, Obama said, “struggle with disappointing people.”

“They couldn’t even fathom that I was making a choice for myself that they had to assume that my husband and I are divorcing,” Obama told Sophia Bush on Bush’s “Work in Progress” podcast as the women laughed. “That this couldn’t be a grown woman just making a set of decisions herself.”

Read the full story here.

In response to NBC News' repeated queries, a White House spokesperson said it will not release the list of 75 countries that it says have reached out about trade deals.

A Trump official called it "absurd" that Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP had sued to permanently block Trump's executive order targeting the law firm.

"The Trump administration is working efficiently to eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse in the federal government," White House spokesperson Harrison Fields said in a statement today. "It is absurd that a billion-dollar law firm is suing to retain its access to government perks and handouts."

WilmerHale, a law firm that employed Robert Mueller, who led the Russia investigation after the 2016 election, filed a motion yesterday seeking to permanently block the administration from enforcing an executive order Trump signed last month to suspend its employees' security clearances, end federal contracts with it and discourage federal agencies from hiring its employees.

U.S. District Judge Richard Leon previously barred Trump from executing parts of the order, including ending government contracts and limiting access to federal buildings.

House Republican leaders are barreling forward with plans to vote on a new budget blueprint today to begin work on Trump’s sweeping legislative agenda even as a key bloc of hard-line conservatives remains opposed to the plan.

It’s far from clear whether Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., will be able to corral enough votes for the Senate-approved budget resolution in the narrowly divided House, even as Trump has dialed up the pressure on GOP lawmakers.

Read the full story here.

Trump defended his decision to abruptly pause most tariffs just hours after they went into effect.

"I thought that people were jumping a little bit out of line. They were getting yippie, you know, they were getting a little bit yippie, a little bit afraid," Trump Trump told reporters at the White House this afternoon.

The pause was allowed for countries that did not retaliate, Trump said, "and that’s what I did with China, because they did retaliate."

"So we’ll see how it all works out. I think it’s going to work out amazing," he added.

The Senate this afternoon voted 60-37 to confirm Peter Hoekstra to be U.S. ambassador to Canada.

Nine Democrats joined Republicans in voting for Hoekstra, who was U.S. ambassador to the Netherlands during the first Trump administration. He also served in the House before Trump first took office.

Hoekstra was confirmed amid high tensions between the United States and Canada. Trump has criticized border policies with Canada, which he has also referred to as the 51st U.S. state.

A federal appeals court today paused a lower court’s ruling ordering the government to rehire around 24,000 probationary workers.

“The Government is likely to succeed in showing the district court lacked jurisdiction over Plaintiffs’ claims,” the 2-1 ruling by the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said, staying an order from last month that the workers be rehired.

The panel said it was pausing the ruling until it decides the government’s full appeal.

The decision effectively ends the last injunction directing that the workers get their jobs back. On Tuesday, the Supreme Court issued a similar ruling, halting a California judge’s order requiring several federal agencies to reinstate around 16,000 workers the Trump administration had sought to fire.

Read the full story here.

The three-person team from the U.S. Agency for International Development sent to respond to a devastating earthquake in Myanmar woke up to termination notices after spending their first night in the country sleeping outside, two sources directly familiar with their situation told NBC News.

The three staffers — based in the U.S., Thailand and the Philippines — are still on the ground in the city of Mandalay, near the epicenter, working to provide lifesaving aid despite their looming July 1 end date. They arrived in the war-ravaged Southeast Asian nation last week, days after rescuers arrived from China, Russia, India and elsewhere.

The State Department, which denies the U.S. response was delayed by the Trump administration’s dismantling of USAID, the agency that administers civilian foreign aid, said Friday that the U.S. would increase its aid to Myanmar to $9 million from $2 million. According to Myanmar’s military-led government, the 7.7-magnitude quake has left more than 3,300 people dead and more than 4,800 injured.

While USAID staffers who have received termination notices have the option to take leave, those in the bureau of humanitarian assistance are still working, although they feel exploited and "taken advantage of because our work is lifesaving and if we don’t do it, people will suffer,” said one source, who asked for anonymity for fear of retaliation.

The U.S. government's borrowing costs eased somewhat on news of the tariffs pause, with the yield, or interest rate demanded by investors to lend to the government, on the 10-year treasury note declining from an earlier high of 4.5% to 4.4%.

The yield had begun to surge early today as Trump's tariffs took effect, undermining the goal of his administration to lower government borrowing costs amid a ballooning deficit.

The 10-year yield is now likely to remain relatively elevated until investors get more clarity about how the Federal Reserve perceives the economic fallout from the entire tariffs episode.

Still, bond investors who'd been hoping for a Fed intervention today in response to the unexpectedly rising borrowing costs will now have to grapple once again with the central bank's stated position that it intends to keep borrowing rates higher for longer to counteract lingering inflation in the economy.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Trump’s decision to pause most tariffs came after more than 75 countries reached out to the White House to try to negotiate a better trade agreement after Trump announced sweeping tariffs on April 2. 

Bessent said a universal 10% tariff will remain for all countries whose goods are imported into the U.S. Tariffs will also remain in place on imported vehicles and steel and aluminum.

“I think the market now understands everything they saw last Wednesday was a ceiling, and now we have a temporary floor,” he said.

Bessent said the tariffs announced on April 2 served as a way to get countries to come to the negotiating table, adding, “President Trump created maximum negotiating leverage for himself."

Bessent said the U.S. decided to continue ratcheting up tariffs on China because that country hasn't reached out to the White House and instead increased its own tariffs on U.S. goods.

The Trump administration has asked the Supreme Court to allow the firings of two members of independent federal agencies that were set up specifically to avoid such political interference.

Trump wants to remove Gwynne Wilcox, a member of the National Labor Relations Board, and Cathy Harris, a member of the Merit Systems Protection Board.

Although the Supreme Court previously upheld protections against members of independent agencies being removed without cause, the current conservative majority has reversed course in recent cases.

"This case raises a constitutional question of profound importance: whether the President can supervise and control agency heads who exercise vast executive power on the President’s behalf, or whether Congress may insulate those agency heads from presidential control by preventing the President from removing them at will," Solicitor General D. John Sauer wrote in the new filing.

Trump's top trade official addressed Trump's announcement of a 90-day pause on tariffs for most countries except China during the House Ways and Means Committee hearing.

"Mr. Trade Representative, are you aware that the tariffs have been paused?" Rep. Steven Horsford, D-Nev., asked.

"I am, yes," Greer said, adding he understood that the decision was made just a few minutes ago by the president.

Horsford then asked why, if Greer knew Trump was considering a pause, he didn't say so in his opening remarks.

Trump said in a post on Truth Social that he ​​would be pausing tariffs on dozens of countries while his administration engages in trade negotiations.

At the same time, Trump said he would be increasing the tariff on China to 125%  “based on the lack of respect that China has shown to the World’s Markets."

It wasn’t clear from Trump’s statement which countries would be exempt.

Stocks surged following Trump’s announcement. 

During today's House hearing with Trump's top trade official, Rep. Brad Schneider, D-Ill., had a coarse way of questioning what Trump is thinking in imposing his sweeping tariffs on most foreign tariffs.

"I don't want to disappoint my mom and my wife, or have them yell at me. But Mr. Greer, I'm going to say what I think almost everyone is thinking: WTF?" Schneider asked Trump's trad representative, Jamieson Greer.

"What's the president thinking?" he continued. "What did he and you think was going to happen after unilaterally declaring a global trade war?"

"Did you expect the so-called Liberation Day to become Liquidation Week?" Schneider added, saying that the tariffs have moved the U.S. from an extended bull market to a self-induced bear market.

Former Rep. Wiley Nickel, a Democrat, is launching a campaign to unseat Republican Sen. Thom Tillis in North Carolina in 2026.

"Time after time, on issue after issue, Tillis votes with MAGA extremists for the Trump agenda," Nickel said in his launch video. "Instead of standing up for our state, he bends the knee for a would-be dictator."

North Carolina has long been a target for Democrats seeking to flip Senate seats. In 2022, Democrat Cheri Beasley ran in an open seat but lost to now-Sen. Ted Budd, a Republican, by just more than 3 percentage points.

House Republicans are looking to block Democrats from forcing a vote on legislation to terminate Trump's tariffs, inserting a provision to prevent a vote in a separate measure related to the GOP budget resolution.

The House Rules Committee added language to a floor rule for the consideration of the GOP budget resolution that would prevent Democrats from forcing a vote on terminating the national emergency declaration Trump used when announcing tariffs April 2.

The House is scheduled to vote on the rule this afternoon, which is primarily designed to advance the Senate-amended budget resolution to the floor. But the rule also contains language that would remove the possibility of using a fast-track procedure known as "privilege" for votes on measures related to the April 2 national emergency through the end of the fiscal year Sept. 30.

The rule needs a simple majority vote on the floor of the House to be approved. If approved, it could block a resolution introduced yesterday by Rep. Greg Meeks, D-N.Y., the top Democrat on the Foreign Affairs Committee, that would terminate the April 2 emergency, from coming to the floor for a vote.

The Senate confirmed former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee to be the U.S. ambassador to Israel.

The vote was 53 to 46.

He starts his tenure during a tenuous period after the Israel-Hamas ceasefire collapsed. Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met at the White House on Monday.

The Chinese government warned its citizens about traveling to the U.S. for tourism amid an escalating trade war between the world’s two biggest economies.

“Due to the deterioration of Sino-U.S. economic and trade relations and the domestic security situation in the United States, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism reminds Chinese tourists to fully assess the risks of traveling to the United States and travel with caution,” the ministry said in a statement.

Earlier today, China announced an additional 50% tariff on U.S. imports, to take effect tomorrow. The latest tariff, which matches a 50% levy Trump announced Monday, brings the total Chinese tariff on U.S. goods to 84%, while the combined U.S. tariff on Chinese imports is 104% as of today.

Rep. Don Beyer, D-Va., was blunt in his assessment of Trump's tariffs at a House Ways and Means hearing with Trump's top trade official, saying the policies were "stupid and bad."

"Ambassador Greer, you have a most awful job trying to convince us and the people we represent that the president's trade policies are wise and measured, when the truth is they are stupid and bad," Beyer told the hearing's sole witness, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer.

At a House hearing on trade, Rep. Greg Murphy, R-N.C., likened tariffs to taking medicine and argued the situation constituted an emergency, echoing similar talking points from other Republicans.

"There is short-term problems, without a doubt," Murphy acknowledged. "But the same thing by taking medicine you don't want to take, if we don't help the body by intervening and doing what is critically important for this nation, nothing else matters."

Anyone wanting a window into how Europe’s lawmakers are feeling in the wake of being slapped with tariffs need look no further than today’s vote by the European Union to impose tariffs in retaliation for U.S. aluminum and steel levies.

The notoriously unwieldy bloc of 27 countries often can’t agree on policy, but on Trump’s sweeping duties, Europe is united, says Finnish member of the European Parliament Aura Salla. 

“Our member states think that we need to be united, because it also shows President Trump that the E.U. can act, and trade is something where [the] E.U. has competencies,” Salla told NBC News.

In recent weeks, Trump and his advisers have accused Europe of freeloading, being culturally bankrupt and not doing enough to defend itself. Now the E.U. — a market of 500 million people — has received new import levies just like scores of America’s friends and foes. But what's next for Euro-American relations?

“We all know that the U.S. is our ally, but the E.U. must really respond now forcefully to these tariffs,” Salla said. “We also know that with more than 80% of the E.U.’s external trade not focused on the U.S., so Brussels is really looking for other partnerships right now.”

Trump and his billionaire adviser Elon Musk have fanned the flames of a baseless rumor about America’s gold reserves at least a dozen times since mid-February. 

The conspiracy theory, alleging without evidence that someone might have stolen the gold reserves from Fort Knox, Kentucky, has circulated for decades, but it seems to have first appeared on the Trump administration’s radar after far-right financial blog Zero Hedge tagged Musk in a post about the idea on X.  

Read the full story here.

The traders who work the floor of the New York Stock Exchange remain mostly anonymous as photographers prowl the floor looking for reaction to the swings of the market, but one seems to be proudly asserting his identity as a Trump supporter.

Sen. John Cornyn called Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who yesterday announced a primary run against the Texas senator, a "conman and a fraud."

"Mr. Paxton has a checkered background. He is a conman and a fraud, and I think the people of Texas know that," Cornyn told reporters.

Cornyn added that he would not "turn over" his seat to "somebody like him."

Rep. Darin LaHood, R-Ill., said in his line of questioning at a House Ways and Means Committee hearing today with Trump's top trade official that his congressional district is the 10th-largest corn and soybean producer in the country, and asked about the potential impact of Trump's tariffs.

"But as I talk to my farmers, there’s a lot of anxiety, a lot of stress, a lot of uncertainty, because when we get into a trade war, usually the first pawn in the trade war is agriculture," LaHood said. He asked the U.S. trade representative, Jamieson Greer, what he would tell his farmers in terms of the anxiety and uncertainty they're facing now.

In response, Greer said that "the first thing to note is that almost all countries have announced that they’re not going to retaliate against the United States. Obviously, we have China — that has made its own choice. They’ve always given us a hard time. They’ve always limited our access over there, and they’re doubling down on that path."

Indonesia, India and Vietnam, for example, aren't retaliating against Trump's tariffs, Greer said.

Other major trading partners, including Canada and the E.U. are retaliating, however, though Mexico is trying to avoid retaliation.

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer laid out what she called a “consistent national strategy” for bringing manufacturing back to the United States in a lengthy speech today in the nation’s capital, just hours after Trump’s tariffs on the U.S.’ largest trading partners went into effect.

After highlighting her work in Michigan to boost manufacturing, the second-term Democrat told attendees, “Here’s my pitch: let’s keep going. Let’s make more ships, planes, and semiconductor chips in America. Let’s cut red tape and unleash the extraordinary potential of American industry.”

Read the full story.

As Trump’s sweeping new tariffs on China and other countries went into effect, there are new questions about what it means for consumers with prices set to rise for most imported items. NBC’s Christine Romans joins "TODAY" with analysis.

European Union officials have approved imposing a fresh set of retaliatory duties on U.S. imports.

The duties, which would come into effect April 15, would range from 10% to 25% on more than $24 billion worth of U.S. goods, including tobacco, motorcycles, poultry, steel and aluminum.

American whiskey was removed from the targeted list of U.S. products after Trump threatened tariffs of 200% on alcoholic products from the E.U.

Trump’s sweeping new tariffs on nearly 90 countries, including almost all major U.S. trading partners, went into effect today with a 104% tariff on all Chinese products. Despite rattled markets, fears of a recession and backlash from his own allies and fellow Republicans, Trump is insisting he has things under control. “I know what the hell I’m doing,” he said. NBC’s Peter Alexander reports for "TODAY."

JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said today he sees the U.S. economy likely headed to recession as Trump’s tariffs roil financial markets.

With the trade war between the U.S. and China intensifying, stocks and bonds sold off aggressively again in morning trade. Stock market futures slumped and bond yields spiked amid concerns over financial and economic stability brought on by the tit-for-tat exchange between the two nations.

“I think probably that’s a likely outcome, because markets, I mean, when you see a 2,000-point decline [in the Dow Jones Industrial Average], it sort of feeds on itself, doesn’t it,” Dimon said on Fox Business’ “Mornings With Maria” show. “It makes you feel like you’re losing money in your 401(k), you’re losing money in your pension. You’ve got to cut back.”

Recession fears have been rising on Wall Street as the Trump tariffs spur uncertainty about how far the trade war will escalate.

Read the full article here.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in an interview with Fox Business that sharp moves in the bond market do not concern him.

"I believe that there is nothing systemic about this," Bessent said.

The U.S. 10-year bond yield fell in the immediate aftermath of Trump's April 2 tariff announcement. But in the days since, the yield has soared to nearly 4.5% and has become the talk of Wall Street. Such dramatic moves in U.S. government bonds are unusual since they are seen as a "safe haven" investment.

The sharp move higher over recent days means that everything from credit card rates to mortgage rates have also risen, raising costs for consumers. Bessent had said after the election that a priority of his was lowering U.S. bond rates so that interest rates would fall for consumers quickly.

While offering some criticism of Trump's new tariffs, some countries have rushed to negotiate a deal, with Israeli officials having already met Trump's staff, and more officials from Japan and South Korea on the way.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni will be in Washington later this month, and the U.K. also signaled it was open to negotiate. Singapore, which was hit with the baseline 10% tariff, said as well that it will try to engage the U.S.

Meanwhile, Vietnam, which was slapped a 46% levy, said it will buy more American products, including defense equipment, as it seeks a 45-day grace period for more negotiations. Australia, with which the U.S. runs a trade surplus, was still subject to the baseline 10% levy but has not announced any retaliation.

Taiwan has not proposed increasing tariffs as a starting point for negotiations, saying it would instead seek to boost its U.S. imports and expand its U.S. investments, and India and Thailand have also offered concessions in the form of import increases.

"Bring us your best offers and he will listen," White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt wrote in a post on X yesterday. "Deals will only be made if they benefit American workers and address our nations crippling trade deficits," she said.

A former Biden administration official in charge of U.S. policy toward China has warned that Trump’s simultaneous trade offensive against dozens of countries might be giving China an edge on the world stage.

“The fact that the administration came out against nearly 70 countries at once makes me worried that it may have actually improved China’s position,” Rick Waters, deputy assistant secretary of state for China and Taiwan in the last administration, told NBC News.

"If you go after your friends harder than your enemies, you lose the leverage of being able to bring those friends to your side and improve your position with the primary competitor," Waters told NBC News.

China, he said, was "hunkering down for a long period," hoping it can outlast the U.S.. He added that Beijing has other means to hurt the U.S. in return, including halting cooperation on fentanyl.

Billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman, who endorsed Trump, urged the president to hit pause on U.S. tariffs as the markets reel over the escalating trade war.

"If the president doesn’t pause the effect of the tariffs soon, many small businesses will go bankrupt," Ackman said in a post on X. "Medium-sized businesses will be next. A 90-day pause will enable @realDOnaldTrump to accomplish his objectives without destroying small businesses in the short term. May cooler heads prevail."

Ackman previously said that the U.S. was heading toward an "economic nuclear winter" because of tariffs.

While many countries have not signaled they will retaliate over U.S. tariffs, some have already announced countermeasures.

The biggest one is China, which today announced its levies on U.S. goods will be at 84% as it seeks to match Trump's tariffs.

The European Union, which faces 25% tariffs, is set to approve its first retaliatory tariff today. This week, the 27-nation bloc proposed extra duties of up to 25% on a range of U.S. imports and was still assessing how to respond to U.S. duties on cars and others products.

Trump also imposed a 25% tariff rate on Canada, which retaliated by saying it will follow a "dollar-by-dollar" approach and imposed its own 25% tariff on U.S. imports.

Global drugmakers’ stocks dropped across the board today after Trump reiterated plans for a “major” tariff on pharmaceutical imports, threatening an interwoven supply chain across the world, and as his country-specific reciprocal tariffs took effect, leading to more pain in global markets.

Pharmaceutical imports were initially exempt from Trump’s first set of reciprocal tariffs last week but his administration has since indicated that levies on the sector, which in the past has been excluded from such actions, are coming.

The president has said the tariffs will incentivize drug companies to move operations to the U.S. However, analysts and companies have raised concerns about the difficulty in setting up manufacturing in the United States.

Shares of major U.S. drugmakers such as Gilead Sciences, Pfizer, Merck and Eli Lilly fell between 2% and 4% in premarket trading.

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China is showing no signs of backing down after Trump imposed a sweeping 104% tariff on Chinese goods, including clothes, shoes, toys and tech products. Duties on other countries also went into effect, with a punishing 49% tariff on Cambodia and 46% for Vietnam, both are key manufacturing hubs for American companies like Nike, Lululemon and Apple. NBC’s Janis Mackey Frayer reports for "TODAY."

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said China's latest retaliation against U.S. tariffs "is a loser for them."

China has announced it would raise tariffs on some U.S. goods from 34% to 84% in retaliation for U.S. tariff hikes on its products.

"They're the surplus country. Their exports to the U.S. are five times our exports to China," Bessent claimed in the FOX Business interview. "So they can raise their tariffs, but so what?"

Trump’s sweeping tariff plans sent stocks tumbling and economists warning of a broader economic slowdown, many of Trump’s supporters say they support the move as part of a broader vision for the U.S. economy, even if prices rise.

But a slice of 2024 Trump voters are deeply concerned, illustrating the real potential political peril for the president and his party.

Read the full story here.

Italy’s prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, announced she will meet Trump in Washington on April 17 to discuss tariffs.

Her visit comes as world leaders work to court the Trump administration in an effort to reduce tariffs on products imported to the U.S. from their countries.

After Trump slapped damaging tariffs to countries in Asia, Chinese President Xi Jinping, meanwhile, called on his officials to focus on building strong relations with those very countries.

Xi “emphasized the need to focus on building a community of shared future with neighboring countries, striving to open up a new chapter in neighborhood diplomacy,” wrote the Communist Party-run newspaper People’s Daily today, describing Xi’s speech at a conference meeting on neighboring countries in Beijing.

At a time when “regional dynamics are increasingly intertwined with global changes,” the meeting also called on deepening supply chain with China’s neighbors, improving connectivity and “to consolidate strategic mutual trust,” the newspaper reported.

Former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers is warning the U.S. is heading for a "serious financial crisis" as a result of Trump's tariffs if the events of the last 24 hours continue to play out.

"Long-term interest rates are gapping up, even as the stock market moves sharply downwards," he wrote Wednesday morning on X. "This highly unusual pattern suggests a generalized aversion to U.S. assets in global financial markets."

"We are being treated by global financial markets like a problematic emerging market" — a crisis scenario, he said, given the state of the U.S.’s debt and deficit and its dependence on foreign buyers of bonds.

"The only way to mitigate these risks is for the President @realDonaldTrump to back off his current path," Summers said. "This is the first U.S. bout of U.S. financial instability caused by the U.S. government."

As Trump keeps piling tariffs on top of Chinese goods, Beijing is imposing the exact same increases, in a growing standoff between the world’s two biggest economies.

Last week, Trump announced an additional 34% tariff on Chinese imports, citing the U.S. trade deficit with China. Beijing responded two days later with its own 34% tariff on U.S. goods.

On Monday, Trump said he would impose an additional 50% tariff on Chinese goods unless Beijing withdrew its 34% tariff. Instead, China has announced the same extra 50% tariff on U.S. goods.

Both new U.S. tariffs took effect today, bringing the combined U.S. levy on Chinese goods to at least 104%. The Chinese tariffs take effect tomorrow for a combined 84% levy on U.S. goods.

Walmart on Wednesday pulled its outlook for operating income in the first quarter, citing uncertainty about the potential impact of sweeping tariffs on China, Vietnam and other key sources of goods across the globe.

In a news release, the discounter said it wants to “maintain flexibility to invest in price as tariffs are implemented.” It did not provide a new range for first-quarter operating income. It had projected an increase of 0.5% to 2.0% to adjusted operating income in the fiscal first quarter.

Walmart made the move the same day that President Donald Trump’s sharp tariffs took effect on significant manufacturing hubs that produce some of the goods that it carries. The duties began at 12:01 a.m. ET, including an expected 104% tariff on imports from China and a 46% levy on imports from Vietnam.

Yet the long-term fate of the tariffs remains unclear, as Trump sends mixed signals about his willingness to strike deals with some countries to lower the duties. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has said some 70 countries have reached out to the White House for talks about the levies.

Read more from CNBC.

China said today that it is hiking its retaliatory duties on imports from the U.S. from 34% to 84%.

In a statement on its website, China's customs agency blasted the U.S.'s decision to impose duties on Chinese imports that now total at least 104%.

"The U.S.’s practice of escalating tariffs on China is a mistake on top of a mistake, which seriously infringes on China’s legitimate rights and interests, seriously damages the rules-based multilateral trading system, and seriously impacts the stability of the global economic order. It is a typical example of unilateralism, protectionism, and economic bullying," it wrote.

Foodstuffs like soybeans, energy products including crude oil and high-end electronics are some of the largest U.S. products imported by China. The White House has already signaled it will provide support to U.S. farmers affected by the trade war.

European stocks are suffering yet another downbeat trading session with U.S. stocks also set to pick up where they left off when trading opens in just under three hours.

The Stoxx 600, an index of Europe's biggest companies, was last down 3.3% taking its losses over the past week to around 15%. Major indexes in the U.K., Germany, France and Italy had all fallen by around 3% following on from a gloomy session in Asia, where Japan's Nikkei index dropped by 4%.

U.S. stocks are also moving lower in pre-market trade, which is generally a good indicator of how investors will behave at the open. While the major U.S. indexes were last on course for opening losses of 1% or less, those figures were volatile.

Investors will have one eye on the European vote Wednesday on whether to impose retaliatory tariffs as well as updates out of the White House on further tariffs and negotiations.

Trump’s unprecedented tariffs on global imports into the United States take effect Wednesday, reshuffling a global economic order that has largely stood for generations. 

The mere announcement of the duties last week sent shock waves through global markets and caused trillions of dollars in paper losses. Now, consumers and investors alike will begin to gauge the actual impact on the U.S. economy as the cost of the import taxes starts to flow through supply chains and into businesses and household budgets.

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Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian said "with broad economic uncertainty around global trade, growth has largely stalled."

Bastian was announcing Delta's latest quarterly earnings in an announcement to shareholders. "Given the lack of economic clarity, it is premature at this time to provide an updated full-year outlook," he added.

Delta, which is the most profitable airline in the U.S., also said it would be "reducing planned capacity growth in the second half of the year" amid developing global economic worries.

With European Union lawmakers set to vote Wednesday on tariffs to counter the Trump administration’s steel and aluminum duties, the bloc is united in favor of negotiating while remaining ready to strike back, German finance minister Jörg Kukies today told German radio station Deutschlandfunk.

“What’s happening right now with tariffs and counter-tariffs is damaging to both sides, and we hope to initiate an improvement through negotiations and, if necessary, countermeasures,” he said.

After Wednesday’s vote, the EU will continue to discuss potential measures to counter the U.S. tariffs on European cars and the blanket 20% tariff that came into force earlier today. Meanwhile, Europe’s trade chiefs are yearning for the days of the first Trump administration.

“Unfortunately,” Kukies said, “the pace is faster than in the first Trump administration, where they talked first and then acted. Now it’s the other way around.”

Trump mocked the leaders of countries trying to negotiate a resolution to the sweeping global import tariffs his administration has imposed.

“I’m telling you, these countries are calling us up, kissing my ass,” Trump said in a long, digressive speech at the National Republican Congressional Committee’s President’s Dinner in Washington.

“They are dying to make a deal. ‘Please, please, sir, make a deal. I’ll do anything. I’ll do anything, sir,’” he said late yesterday.

In the hours before fresh tariffs on China went into effect, with imports from the country now carrying a cumulative duty of 104%, the president also touched on what he sees as the country’s attitude to the escalating trade war between Washington and Beijing.

“They want to make a deal. They just don’t know how to get it started because they’re proud people. China will now pay a big number to our treasury,” Trump added.

China hasn’t announced any additional countermeasures after Trump’s new 50% tariffs on Chinese goods went into effect overnight, but did stress that it “opposes and will never accept such hegemonic behavior.”

Beijing’s 34% tarrifs on U.S. imports go into effect tomorrow.

The U.S., whose levies on China now total 104%, is “abusing tariffs on China and exerting extreme pressure,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian told a regular news briefing. The U.S. should “adopt an attitude of equality, respect and reciprocity,” he said, if it wants to “solve the problem through dialogue and negotiation.”

Trump had earlier ruled out any negotations with China if it didn’t back off the 34% reciprocal tarrifs imposed after Trump’s first round was announced. Yesterday, China said it “will fight to the end if the U.S. insists on its own way.”

Officials in Tokyo decried Trump’s 24% tarrifs on Japan that went into effect today, with the government’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi calling them “extremely regrettable.”

The tarrifs, he told reporters, “will have a significant impact on the economic relationship between Japan and the United States.”

Hayashi’s comments came as Jamieson Greer, who was appointed as the U.S. trade representative to negotiate with Japan yesterday called for more market access into the country.

The U.S.’s imposition of a 25% levy on auto imports, and reciprocal 24% tariffs on Japanese goods goods, will likely be a big blow to the country’s economy, which is heavily reliant on exports. According to Reuters, analysts predict the higher duties could knock up to 0.8% off economic growth.