Trump Tweets Tariff And Markets React

 | Dec 03, 2019 12:40PM ET

U.S. President Trump decided enough is enough, already. First, he restored tariffs on Argentina and Brazil for aluminum and steel imports to the United States. He cited a “massive devaluation of their currencies,” which in turn hurts American farmers. It was then determined (after a five-month investigation) that a French digital tax discriminated against American internet companies. As a result, tariffs of up to $2.4 billion on French consumer imports to the United States was proposed. In addition, ISM Manufacturing data was worse than expected in the United States. Combined, these factors and most major stock indices were down near 1% on Monday. In addition, the U.S. Dollar Index was also down 0.5%.

On Tuesday President Trump said, “I have no deadline on China deal and it might be better to wait until after November 2020 election.” And later, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said, “December 15 tariffs on Chinese imports will be applied unless there is some real reason to postpone them, such as substantive progress in talks.”