Stock market futures slip ahead of Trump’s ‘Liberation Day’ tariffs
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(NEW YORK) — Stock markets struggled into Wednesday morning as it became clear that President Donald Trump intended to announce a slew of tariffs on America’s trading partners, with the White House preparing to mark what it is calling “Liberation Day.”
The S&P 500 and NASDAQ both posted their first quarterly losses since 2022 this week as investors prepared for the new measures and economists warned of the possibility of a recession — with major potential knock-on effects for other economies around the globe.
The Dow Jones, S&P 500 and NASDAQ futures were all slipping on Wednesday morning, with Dow Jones futures down by about 100 points.
Trump is set to make his tariff announcement in the White House Rose Garden on Wednesday after the stock market closes.
Abroad, the British FTSE 100 index dropped by more than 0.6% on Wednesday morning, with Germany’s DAX index down by 1.2%. The French CAC 40 index was down more than 0.5%.
Japan’s Nikkei index rose nearly 0.3%, but South Korea’s KOSPI index dropped by more than 0.6%.
On Tuesday, the Dow Jones ended at 41,989.96 down 0.03%. The S&P 500 ended at 5,633.07 up 0.38% and the NASDAQ ended at 17,449.89 up 0.87%.
Automakers and pharmaceutical companies have reportedly been lobbying the Trump administration for carve outs and a phase-in approach for the promised tariffs.
World leaders have threatened a response while pressing the White House for clarity.
(NEW YORK) — China issued a warning on Wednesday night that it stands ready for any “type of war” with the United States in the aftermath of tariffs imposed hours earlier by the Trump administration.
A spokesperson for the Chinese foreign ministry said the tariffs would not lead to a resolution of U.S. concerns about fentanyl originating in China.
“If the U.S. truly wants to solve the fentanyl issue, then the right thing to do is to consult with China on the basis of equality, mutual respect and mutual benefit to address each other’s concerns,” Chinese spokesperson Lin Jian said at a press conference late Tuesday.
“If the U.S. has other agenda in mind and if war is what the U.S. wants, be it a tariff war, a trade war or any other type of war, we’re ready to fight till the end,” Jian added.
The remarks came soon after the Trump administration imposed 25% tariffs on goods from Mexico and Canada, as well as 10% tariffs on imports from China. The fresh round of duties on Chinese goods doubled an initial set of tariffs placed on China last month.
Within minutes of the new U.S. tariffs taking effect, China unveiled on Tuesday its initial response by placing additional 10% to 15% tariffs on imported U.S. goods, like chicken, wheat, soybeans and beef.
Those duties will be on top of similar tariffs imposed back during the first Trump administration’s trade war in 2018. Some of those tariffs are already at 25%, though Beijing issued some waivers as a result of the 2020 “phase one” trade deal.
The new Chinese tariffs are set to come into effect for goods shipped out next Monday, March 10.
In a series of social media posts last month, Trump said he would place tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China for hosting the manufacture and transport of illicit drugs that end up in the U.S.
During an address to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday night, Trump also sharply criticized tariffs imposed by the Chinese government on U.S. goods.
“President Trump continues to demonstrate his commitment to ensuring U.S. trade policy serves the national interest,” the White House said in a statement on Tuesday.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said on Tuesday afternoon that Trump may soon offer Canada and Mexico a pathway to relief from tariffs placed on some goods covered by North America’s free trade agreement.
Lutnick did not mention a potential compromise with China.
(WASHINGTON) — Boeing is seeking to withdraw its guilty plea agreement with the Department of Justice in the criminal cases surrounding two deadly 737 MAX crashes, sources familiar with the matter told ABC News.
The agreement blamed the aerospace giant for misleading the Federal Aviation Administration before the two crashes in October 2018 and March 2019 that killed 346 people in total.
Boeing is seeking more lenient treatment from President Donald Trump’s administration and the DOJ is considering modifying aspects of the plea agreement, the sources said.
The Wall Street Journal was first to report the news.
The initial plea agreement was rejected by U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor in December 2024, who cited the government’s diversity, equity and inclusion policies as a factor in the selection of an independent compliance monitor for Boeing.
According to the most recent court filing, the two parties will continue to meet and negotiate and must notify the court by April 11 on how they plan to proceed forward.
Boeing declined to comment to ABC News and referred the question to the DOJ.
“Boeing got one of the most lenient deferred prosecution agreements in American history,” said Paul Cassell, a lawyer representing some families of the MAX crash victims. “The idea that after they breached that agreement, they get another opportunity to avoid acknowledging what it’s done seems, to me, to be wishful thinking on the part of Boeing.”
The first crash on Oct. 29, 2018, in Jakarta, Indonesia, killed all 189 passengers and crew. The second crash, on March 10, 2019, happened in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, when a Boeing aircraft crashed minutes after takeoff and killed 157 people onboard.
Both crashes preceded the Alaska Airlines incident in Jan. 2024, when a door plug fell out of the fuselage of a Boeing 737 Max 9, a newer model, after departure.
(NEW YORK) — As Tesla stock has fallen in recent weeks, members of the board and an executive at Elon Musk’s company have been selling off millions of dollars in stock, according to filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Together, four top officers at the company have offloaded over $100 million in shares since early February.
Last week, longtime Musk ally James Murdoch — the estranged son of Fox boss Rupert Murdoch and a board member since 2017 — became the latest to do so, exercising a stock option and selling shares worth approximately $13 million, according to an SEC filing. The sale took place on March 10, coinciding with the stock’s largest single-day decline in five years.
According to one filing, the shares were sold “to cover the exercise price relating to the exercise of stock options to purchase 531,787 shares, which are scheduled to expire in 2025.”
Elon Musk’s brother, Kimbal Musk, who also sits on the board, unloaded 75,000 shares worth approximately $27 million last month, according to a filing.
The chairman of the board, Robyn Denholm, has offloaded more than $75 million dollars worth of shares in two transactions in the past five weeks, federal filings show. The selloffs made by Denholm came as part of a predetermined sales plan.
A number of board members and executives made similar moves in November and December. But the recent sales come at a tumultuous time for Tesla, with the stock falling nearly 50% from a peak in mid-December. The company’s shares have suffered most of those losses since President Donald Trump took office and Musk began his controversial governmental cost-cutting efforts as the head of the newly created Department of Government Efficiency.
“Whenever insiders, including directors, are selling shares, it’s not a positive signal,” Jay Ritter, a professor of finance at the University of Florida, told ABC News.
However, Ritter added, an exception applies to the predetermined sales plan adopted by Denholm in July 2024, which marks a routine effort to avoid the perception an officer unloaded shares based on inside information.
“Filing a plan months ago to sell some of those shares over time is common,” Ritter said.
Tesla did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment.
Seth Goldstein, an analyst at research firm Morningstar who studies the electric vehicle industry, said some of the stock sales may owe to personal financial choices made by individual officers.
“While a sale doesn’t necessarily mean an executive or board member feels negatively about a company’s outlook, it could mean they think the stock is at a fair price or even overvalued,” Goldstein said.
The share selloffs made by board members and executives totaled about $118 million, but the transactions often came after the individuals exercised stock options, the costs of which totaled about $16 million. The officers ended up with a profit of just over $100 million.
ABC News previously reported on concerns from shareholders and pension funds, some of whom have called on Musk to turn his attention back from slashing government spending to running his car company.
Tesla Chief Financial officer Vaibhav Taneja also sold off shares totaling more than $5 million over recent weeks. Some of those transactions came as part of predetermined sales plans, but a transaction earlier this month did not stem from a scheduled sale.
