Will Donald Trump Delay Tariff Imposition? Markets Stabilize Ahead April 2 Deadline

Donald Trump, the 47th US president has oiled his foreign policy through the lubricant of tariffs. Trump, from time to time, has either imposed, threatened or delayed the imposition of tariffs on trading partners.

Will He, Won't He

April 2 is the deadline before an avalanche of tariffs is set to kick in. This includes the twice-delayed tariffs on Canada and Mexico, a set of tariffs on specific sectors, and the most recent tariff on automobile imports to the United States.

Not just that, April 2 is also the last day, before the imposition of reciprocal tariffs from the United States across the board.

But is Trump planning to hold onto to his loins yet again? This is a possibility that cannot be entirely dismissed. It has come to pass in the very recent past as well.

And American businesses, from around the country and sectors, have reportedly expressed their displeasure with escalating nature of the trade war, which, needless to say, could affect these companies, in a globalised economy.

An indication of this was derived from the development at Wall Street. After starting the day on an abysmal note, the marquee American indices surged back, covering over 2-3 per cent in the span of the session.

Dow Jones Industrial Average

The Dow Jones for instance, after starting at 41,382.52, lower than Friday's 41,583.90, jumped and made major progress, making gains of 417.86 points or 1.00 per cent.

This took the overall value of the index to 42,001.76 points.

S&P 500

Another major index, the S&P 500, like Dow Jones started the day on a negative note, with cuts, only to make up for the losses and even expand, by the end of the day's trade.

The index declined by 0.55 per cent or 30.91 points, taking the overall value of the index to 5,611.85 points.

Nasdaq Composite

When it comes to the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite, the index did close in the red, but, that does not tell the entire story here, as the index started at 17,045.44, close to 300 points behind its previous closing.

The day ended with Nasdaq closing on 17,299.29, with minor losses of 23.70 points or 0.14 per cent.