Since Trump on Monday first established new tariff levels for goods from 14 countries – and then announced that the deadline for the general tariff pause is extended from July 9 to August 1 – came new conflicting messages.
First, Trump said that August 1 was "safe but not 100 percent safe" as a new deadline. Then he wrote on social media that "no extensions will be granted".
In addition, the president spoke about heavy tariffs awaiting copper and medicines.
An old truth is that "the market hates uncertainty", among other things because it is difficult to price risk. When Wall Street closed on Tuesday, it was after a trading day where risk appetite was reflected in small movements around the zero line.
The broad S&P500 index fell 0.1 percent, the Dow Jones industrial index 0.4 while the technology-heavy Nasdaq composite index closed unchanged.
Bret Kenwell, analyst at online broker Etoro, tells the news agency Bloomberg that the headlines about trade war are now revived again. But he adds:
If there is confidence that the negotiations will continue or that the deadlines will be extended, the markets can continue to shake off the headlines.
