Investors are on edge ahead of Donald Trump’s plan to hit imports to the US with new tariffs “immediately” on Wednesday, sharply escalating a trade war that has already rattled markets and trading partners.
Trump spent hours huddled with his closest aides on Tuesday, the eve of what he has dubbed “liberation day”, when he will announce his new “reciprocal” tariffs on foreign countries in a ceremony in the Rose Garden of the White House.
Traders are already braced for the fallout, with measures of impending Wall Street volatility creeping higher in recent days. Investors remain wary of making bold calls on what Trump will say on Wednesday.