Uncertainty surrounding upcoming U.S. tariffs has weighed on global markets over the last month — but President Donald Trump’s highly-anticipated Wednesday announcement may not end the turmoil, analysts say.
Trump is expected to flesh out many unknowns in an address on Wednesday at 4 p.m. ET (9 p.m. BST), including exactly which countries and sectors will be impacted, when the measures will come into effect, how high they will be or how they will be calculated, and whether there will be any or many notable exemptions.
Investors have been attempting to parse rhetoric from reality in the run-up to the presidential address. Global stocks suffered their worst month for a year and a half in March, according to the MSCI World Index. Europe’s Stoxx 600
dropped 4.18% while the U.S. S&P 500 tumbled 5.75%. Asia-Pacific stocks were slightly more resilient, though China’s CSI 300 dipped 0.07%.Zoe Gillespie, chartered wealth manager at RBC Brewin Dolphin, said the Wednesday announcement is “unlikely” to contain full details — and would still leave a lack of clarity over the outlook.
“The danger is actually, what’s going to happen after the announcement, whether we’re going to see the European Union coming back with some retaliatory tariffs, and really the kind of the outlook from that,” she told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe” on Wednesday.
“There could still be more uncertainty as this plays out, and [questions on] whether it becomes a bit like the inflation story, more entrenched in the longer term. And I think the danger is that we don’t have much clarity for a longer period of time, and the impact on growth, and if we start getting some negativity coming through then it could actually delay any real ‘this is the peak bottom’ signals.”
