A new trade war that has erupted between the world’s two largest economies has shaken global markets.
Following U.S. President Donald Trump’s announcement that they are considering a significant increase in tariffs on Chinese products due to restrictions on the export of rare earth elements, and later declaring that they would impose a 100% customs duty on Beijing, sharp declines were experienced on the New York Stock Exchange.
The Dow Jones index fell by 1.90% to 45,479.60 points. The S&P 500 index decreased by 2.71% to 6,552.51 points, and the Nasdaq index dropped by 3.56% to 22,204.43 points. The Dow Jones and Nasdaq indices lost over 800 points at closing. Shares of technology companies most exposed to Chinese trade experienced significant losses. Nvidia fell by more than 3%, AMD dropped over 6%, and Tesla lost more than 4% of its value.
The 100% tariff announced by Trump on China also affected European stock markets. The benchmark index Stoxx Europe 600 fell by 1.25% to 564.16 points. In Italy, the FTSE MIB 30 index dropped by 1.74% to 42,047.5 points, in the UK, the FTSE 100 index decreased by 0.86% to 9,427.47 points, in France, the CAC 40 index lost 1.53% to 7,918 points, and in Germany, the DAX 40 index fell by 1.5% to 24,241.46 points.
Trump’s statements led to an appreciation of currencies such as the Euro and Japanese Yen against the dollar, while commodity-linked currencies, especially the Australian dollar, experienced a decline. The dollar index fell by 0.4% to 98.99. However, the index still shows a weekly increase of 1.66%, marking its strongest performance since September 2024. As of 00:30, the Euro/dollar exchange rate was at 1.16, up by 0.294%.
The world’s largest cryptocurrency by market value, Bitcoin, fell by 8.13% to $111,530. Ethereum also dropped by 14.50% to $3,720.
The price of gold per ounce has risen above $4,000 again. As of 00:35, the price of gold per ounce is trading at $4,018.
