ASX wipes out $28 billion as Trump’s tariffs set to hit Australia

Stocks dependent on discretionary consumer spending were also hit hard, with Bunnings, Officeworks and Kmart owner Wesfarmers down 3.4 per cent, electronics retailer JB Hi-Fi losing 1.7 per cent and furniture and white goods seller Harvey Norman 1.8 per cent weaker.

On Wall Street overnight, the market’s slide was erratic and dizzying. The S&P 500 fell 0.8 per cent, but only after careening between a modest gain and a tumble of 1.5 per cent. At its bottom for the day, the index was more than 10 per cent below its all-time high and on track for what Wall Street calls a “correction.”

Other indexes likewise swung sharply through the day. The Dow Jones lost 1.1 per cent, and the Nasdaq composite ended up slipping 0.2 per cent.

Such head-spinning moves are becoming routine in what’s been a scary ride for investors as Trump tries to remake the country and world through tariffs and other policies. Stocks have been heaving mostly lower on uncertainty about how much pain Trump is willing for the economy to endure to get what he wants.

And moves by Trump and comments by his White House on Tuesday didn’t clarify much.

Stocks began tumbling in the morning after Trump’s Canada move. The president said it was a response to moves a Canadian province made after Trump began threatening tariffs on one of the United States’ most important trading partners.

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Trump has acknowledged the world’s largest economy could feel some “disturbance” because of the tariffs he’s pushing. Asked on Tuesday just how much pain Trump would be willing for the economy and stock market to take, right about when the market was nearing its lows for the day, Leavitt declined to give an exact answer. But she said earlier in a press briefing that “the president will look out for Wall Street and for Main Street.”

For his part, Trump said earlier on social media, “The only thing that makes sense is for Canada to become our cherished Fifty First State. This would make all Tariffs, and everything else, totally disappear.”

Stocks pared their losses later in the day, even eliminating them all briefly, after Ontario’s premier said he had agreed to remove the surcharge on electricity that had enraged Trump so much. He said he was confident that the US president would also stand down on his own plans for 50 per cent tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum.

After that perk higher, though, stocks would go on to slide again into the end of trading.

Tuesday’s swings followed more warning signals flashing about the economy as Trump’s on-and-off-again rollout of tariffs creates confusion and pessimism for US households and businesses.

Such tariffs can hurt the US economy directly by raising prices for consumers and gumming up global trade. But even if they end up being milder than feared, all the whipsaw moves could create so much uncertainty that US companies and consumers freeze, which would sap energy from the economy.

Helping to keep the market in check despite all the worries were several Big Tech stocks, which steadied a bit after getting walloped in recent months. Elon Musk’s Tesla rose 3.8 per cent, for example, after Trump said he would buy a Tesla in a show of support for “Elon’s baby.”

Tesla’s sales and brand have been under pressure as Musk has led efforts in Washington to cut spending by the federal government. Tesla’s stock is down 42.9 per cent for the young year so far.

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Other Big Tech superstars, which had led the market to record after record in recent years, also held a bit firmer. Nvidia added 1.7 per cent to trim its loss for the year so far to 19 per cent. It’s struggled as the market’s sell-off has particularly hit stocks seen as getting too expensive in Wall Street’s frenzy around artificial-intelligence technology.

Because Nvidia, Tesla and other Big Tech stocks have grown so massive in size, their movements carry much more weight on the S&P 500 and other indexes than any other company.

with AP