Markets
Tariffs soaring into the double digits, introduced last Wednesday—now dubbed Liberation Day—have sent investors fleeing. Analysts who once projected yet another record high for U.S. indices are now reversing their outlooks as these tariffs pose incalculable uncertainty into nations and businesses alike. A weaker dollar, which until recently made U.S. investments more enticing, could intensify this exodus. Two consecutive sessions with losses exceeding 5% in major indices have driven Treasury yields sharply lower as investors seek safe havens, a development that could ease the refinancing of U.S. debt. Oil prices have also tumbled, dropping more than 10% this week. Meanwhile, $BTC has begun its descent, slipping below the $80k mark.
Headlines and Quotations
CNBC
British carmaker Jaguar Land Rover pauses U.S. shipments over Trump tariffs
- The U.S. president has implemented a 25% tariff on all foreign cars imported into the country, a move that came into effect on Thursday. The White House also said it intends to place tariffs on some auto parts no later than May 3.
EU seeks unity in first strike back at Trump tariffs
- The 27-nation bloc faces 25% import tariffs on cars and steel and aluminium, and “reciprocal” tariffs of 20% from Wednesday for almost all other goods.
TikTok reportedly stays on App Store after assurance from Attorney General Pam Bondi
- President Donald Trump extended the divestiture deadline for U.S. operations for at least 75 days.
Bitcoin drops Sunday evening as cryptocurrencies join global market rout
- The price of bitcoin was last lower by 4% at $78,835.07
Bloomberg
Tesla Bull Slashes Stock Price Target 43%, Citing Musk and Trump
- Ives reduced his Tesla share-price target to $315 from $550, which had been the second-highest among the 72 analysts tracked by Bloomberg.
- Ives’ biggest concern is the potential for Tesla to get caught up in backlash against the US president’s tariff policies in China, where Tesla generated more than a fifth of its revenue last year. President Xi Jinping’s government plans to impose a 34% tariff on all imports from the US starting April 10, matching the level of Trump’s so-called reciprocal tariffs on Chinese products.
Bessent Defiant on Tariffs as He Rejects a US Recession
Treasuries Star as a Haven Even as Trump Fans Stagflation Fears
- After a rally in US government debt that sent the two-year yield to touch the lowest since 2022, traders are positioning for more gains and pricing in a greater chance the Federal Reserve moves most aggressively to cut interest rates to keep the economy from stalling.
Yahoo Finance
Forget 60/40. BlackRock’s Larry Fink wants investors to embrace 50/30/20.
- “The future standard portfolio may look more like 50/30/20 — stocks, bonds, and private assets like real estate, infrastructure, and private credit,” Fink wrote in his annual letter to clients this week.
Reuters
Hamas fires rockets at Israeli cities, Israel issues evacuation orders in Gaza
- Palestinian militant group Hamas said it fired a barrage of rockets at cities in Israel’s south on Sunday in response to Israeli “massacres” of civilians in Gaza.
Russian troops push into Ukraine’s Sumy region
- Ukrainian officials later denied the report, saying Russian forces were not in control of Basivka.
Le Pen evokes spirit of Martin Luther King Jr. as supporters rally in Paris
- A Paris court convicted Le Pen and two dozen National Rally (RN) party members of embezzling EU funds last week and imposed a sentence that will prevent her from standing in France’s 2027 presidential election unless she can get the ruling overturned within 18 months.
WSJ
How Investing Will Change if the Dollar No Longer Rules the World
- If you’ve been investing your savings for the past 15 years, there is a situation you’ve hardly ever encountered: the U.S. dollar getting structurally weaker. Given the fallout from President Trump’s “Liberation Day,” you may need to get used to it.
- Two forces helped drive this. One was the fracking boom, which made the U.S. largely energy self-sufficient, cutting corporate costs and turning the dollar into a kind of “petrocurrency.”
- The other factor was that U.S. consumer spending was unrelenting, even at times when gas-pump prices increased. For years, it has been powered by government deficit spending, a tech sector exporting services globally at scale, and the wealth effects from a booming stock market.
In Vietnam’s Streets and Factories, Boom Built on U.S. Trade Suddenly Looks Fragile
- For Ha Pham, who runs a network of garment factories employing 500 Vietnamese workers, America has been good for business.
- So when Trump ordered a 46% tariff on Vietnamese goods, to go into effect on Wednesday, it sent her on a crash mission to find new customers in Europe and elsewhere.
- The U.S. trade deficit with Vietnam—the basis for Trump’s tariff rate—is third only to China and Mexico.
Trump Promised to Lower Energy Prices—but It Wasn’t Supposed to Be Like This
- Instead, frackers—and everyone else—are caught in a trade war that investors fear will clobber the global economy and sink demand for crude oil. Over two trading sessions, benchmark U.S. oil prices fell almost 14% to $61.99 a barrel, their lowest level since April 2021. That’s a price that shale drillers say would eventually hinder their investment plans.
