Stock markets react negatively to Trump's tariff announcement

A day after Donald Trump announced the imposition of reciprocal tariffs on many of the country's trading partners, the major stock markets reacted downward, driven by uncertainty about how macroeconomic indicators such as inflation will perform.

All three major U.S. indexes plunged. During Thursday morning trading, the Nasdaq fell as much as 5.24% from the open, while the S&P 500 and Dow Jones were down as much as 4.07% and 3.72%, respectively.

The Nasdaq share price, which began the day at 16,877.93 points, suffered a collapse of some 200 points in barely an hour and a half, to 16,678.37.

The Dow Jones, which had a slight rally during the opening, fell from 41,105.45 points to 40,654. And the S&P 500, which also saw its value rise slightly at the opening of the markets, retreated to 5,440.12 points after opening at 5,494.35.

Europe and Asia slump

Outside of U.S. borders, the Asian and European stock markets also reacted downward following Trump's announcement. For example, in Japan, the Nikkei 225 index (Tokyo) closed down 2.77%.

In China, upon which Trump imposed tariffs of 34%, the main stock exchanges (Shenzen and Shanghai) fell between 0.24% and 1.4%. The Hong Kong stock market dropped 1.69%; and Seoul, South Korea, fell 0.76%.

The steepest losses within the Asian market were seen in Vietnam. The Hanoi Stock Exchange fell as much as 6% during Thursday's trading.

In Europe, where most leaders criticized the trade measures announced by Trump, the main stock markets also registered losses during the day.

The Paris Stock Exchange lost 2.9%; Frankfurt, 2.12%; Milan, 2.73%; London, 1.30% and Madrid, 1.21%.