FTSE 100 suffers biggest one-day fall since August as Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs send shockwaves through global markets – business live | Trump tariffs

European markets have suffered some notably sharp falls today.

Germany’s DAX has lost 3% of its value, while France’s CAC has tumbled by 3.3% and Italy’s FTSE MIB has shed 3.6%.

Newsflash: Britain’s stock market has recorded its biggest one-day fall in eight months, as fears over Donald Trump’s escalating trade war triggered a wave of selling.

The FTSE 100 index of blue-chip shares has closed after a day of heavy losses, down 133 points or 1.5% at 8,474 points.

That’s its biggest daily drop since early August last year, when markets were tumbling on fears of a US recession.

Bank stocks led the fallers, with Standard Chartered down 13%, HSBC falling 8.8% and Barclays losing 8.7%.

Miners were also hit, by fears that a global downturn would hurt demand for commodities such as iron ore, copper and coal.

Here’s a clip US commerce secretary Howard Lutnick arguing that the new tariffs could help US businesses.

This argument, though, doesn’t address the fact that US companies, and their suppliers, face higher costs when they import goods from abroad…

There is no chance Donald Trump will back off his tariffs, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has declared.

In a blow to hopes that Trump could be intimidated into reversing course, Lutnick told CNN:

“The president is not going to back off what he announced yesterday. He is not going to back off.”

Consultancy Oxford Economics is cutting its UK growth forecast after President Trump imposed larger-than-expected tariffs on US imports.

The firm’s new baselines will likely be just below its current forecast of 1% for 2025 and close to 1% for 2026, from the previous 1.5%.

That is a blow to chancellor Rachel Reeves, as it could mean the UK misses her borrowing targets, explains UK economist Andrew Goodwin:

“As things stand, it looks likely that the OBR will judge the government will miss its fiscal rules when it next updates its forecasts in the autumn.”

A new survey has found that two thirds of Britons think the US tariffs announced yesterday will have a negative effect on the UK economy.

YouGov says it polled 7483 adults about Donald Trump’s announcement last night, and found that just 4% said they would have either a “very positive” or “fairly positive” effect, while 67% said they would have a “fairly negative” or “very negative” effect, 14% thought the effect would be “neither positive nor negative” and 15% said “don’t know”.

Reform voters were more likely to say the tariffs would have no effect than other voting groups, YouGov added.

An “unprecedent shock” is about to hit the global economy, Dutch bank ABN Amro has told clients.

ABN Amro predicts that both the US and the eurozone to slow sharply and only just skirt a recession, while the US will also have to deal with higher inflation.

It says:

The White House’s reciprocal tariff plan had been billed as a game changer, and the ‘Liberation Day’ announcement yesterday certainly lived up to that.

In our new base case, the eurozone will see an earlier and bigger downward growth shock, and alongside the US is likely to skirt recession for the remainder of 2025. A recession is not our base case but the risk has risen significantly. For next year, we expect much higher fiscal spending in Europe (both defence generally and in Germany infrastructure) to lead to a rebound in growth.

The S&P 500 share index is down 3.9% and on track for its worst day since September 2022, Marketwatch reports.

Yesterday’s speech by Donald Trump, announcing new tariffs on America’s trading partners, was “another blow to global trade rules,” warns trade expert Simon Evenett.

Evenett, who co-chairs the World Economic Forum’s Council on Trade & Investment, says:

“The size of the import tariff increases are so large for many countries that they being offset by currency depreciation is very unlikely.”

“South East Asian nations have been hit particularly hard… Moving factories to that region from China now seriously discouraged.”

“Tariff uncertainty will continue. The fate of the open world trading system now lies in the hands of officials in America’s major trading powers.”

“EU, Japan, and India are very likely to retaliate. Escalation spiral of tariffs cannot be ruled out.”

“Within Europe, U.K. hit much by lower tariff increases (10% versus EU’s 20%). In terms of headline tariff hikes, the UK is Europe’s winner.”

“The U.S. administration’s theory of harm is now generalised. The way the White House framed these matters foreign state practices aren’t a problem per se, it is their impact on national consumption, imports, and the trade deficit that matters.”

Nearly $300bn has been wiped off Apple’s value today, amid the stock market turmoil.

Apple’s shares are currently down 9%, which by my maths cuts its market capitalisation to around $3.07 trillion, down from $3.367tn last night.

Apple will be hurt by the new US tariffs on imports from China, Taiwan, India and Vietnam, as much of its manufacturing and supply chain is based in the Asia-Pacific region.

Ben Barringer, global technology analyst at Quilter Cheviot, told clients:

“Apple makes 90% of its products in China, with 10% in other Asian countries such as Vietnam and India. These countries are facing the harshest tariffs, so we can expect iPhones and Apple Watches to go up in price, while hitting the profits of the company significantly. Switching production to the US is neither easy, nor cheap.

The tariffs are also likely to create demand destruction, which means cutbacks on software and cloud spending. Alphabet, will see a double whammy with digital advertising also cut back on in a tougher economic environment – with Meta also being hit in this regard.