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President Donald Trump began levying higher import taxes on dozens of countries Thursday, just as the economic fallout of his monthslong tariff threats has begun to create visible damage for the U.S. economy. But while U.S. stocks are drifting lower, the moves are modest and stocks rose in much of the rest of the world.
U.S. stocks drifted to a mixed finish. The S&P 500 slipped 0.1%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 0.5%, and the Nasdaq composite rose 0.3%.
The import taxes are at a level not seen in the U.S. in almost 100 years, with Americans expected to pay an average of 18.3% more for imported products. That’s the highest rate since 1934, according to the Budget Lab at Yale, a nonpartisan policy research center. Despite the uncertainty, the Trump White House is confident businesses will ramp up new investments and jump-start hiring in ways that can rebalance the U.S. economy as a manufacturing power.
What to know:
- The countries impacted by the tariffs: More than 60 countries and the European Union face tariff rates of 10% or higher. Products from the EU, Japan and South Korea are taxed at 15%, while imports from Taiwan, Vietnam and Bangladesh are taxed at 20%. Trump signed an executive order Wednesday to place an additional 25% tariff on India for its purchases of Russian oil, bringing the combined tariffs imposed by the United States on its ally to 50%, to go into effect later this month.
- US Air Force to deny retirement pay to transgender service members: The move will deny all transgender service members who have served between 15 and 18 years the option to retire early and would instead separate them without retirement benefits. All transgender members of the Air Force are being separated from the service under the Trump administration’s policies, and transgender service members will now be faced with the choice of either taking a lump-sum separation payment offered to junior troops or be removed from the service. One Air Force sergeant said he was “betrayed and devastated” by the move.
- Trump demands Intel CEO resign: The company’s shares slumped after Trump called the chip company’s new CEO Lip-Bu Tan “highly CONFLICTED” and demanded his resignation. Senator Tom Cotton had sent a letter to Intel expressing concern that Tan supports the Chinese government and military through his tech company connections. Intel had been a beneficiary of the Biden administration’s CHIPS Act, receiving more than $8 billion in federal funding to build computer chip plants around the country.