Wall Street’s miserable March improved Friday after investors spent the week trying to make sense of the White House messaging on its trade policy.
As a week full of uncertainty about President Donald Trump’s tariffs draws to a close, futures tied to all three major indexes moved higher ahead of the jobs report.
After making good on his threat of a 25% tariff on all goods from Mexico and Canada, effective Tuesday, Trump on Thursday announced a nearly one-month tariff delay on all products from covered by his USMCA free trade treaty.
Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum said Thursday that “virtually all” of Mexico’s trade with the United States is included in that agreement, but a White House official added some nuance, noting that about 50% of imports from Mexico and 36% of imports from Canada are covered.
However, many more items — such as avocados — are generally not covered because of the high cost of of compliance. Those items not in compliance with the USMCA have in effect been treated at customs as if they were, or they weren’t subject to tariffs.
Meanwhile, Canada said it would not lift the retaliatory tariffs it had slapped on imports from the US, with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau saying they would remain in place unless Trump rolls back his tariffs for good, and not just temporarily.
The complications of the trade policy and the heated back and forth between the US and its closest trading partners has clearly fatigued markets, with the Dow down almost 3% on the week as of Thursday’s close and the S&P 500 and Nasdaq both on pace for their worst week since September 2024.
But Trump and his top lieutenants have said they aren’t swayed by Wall Street’s reaction to the tariff negotiations.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told the Economic Club of New York on Thursday that “Wall Street’s done great, Wall Street can continue doing well. But this administration is about Main Street.” Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told CNBC in an interview “The fact that the stock market goes down a half a percent or a percent, it goes up a half a percent or percent — that is not the driving force of our outcomes.” And for his part, Trump said Thursday “I’m not even looking at the market.”
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