Markets soared Tuesday morning following the Trump administration's decision to delay and revise its latest round of punitive tariffs against China. The Dow jumped more than 400 points while the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite both rose roughly 2 percent.
Earlier this month, President Trump announced that U.S. would impose a 10 percent tariff on $300 billion worth of Chinese imports. The tariffs followed seemingly hollow trade talks in Shanghai and were set to go into effect on September 1.
Yet the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) said on Tuesday that tariffs on certain products should be delayed until December 15. These included “cell phones, laptop computers, video game consoles, certain toys, computer monitors, and certain items of footwear and clothing,” the USTR said in a statement.
The agency added that certain products will be removed all together from the targeted tariff list “based on health, safety, national security and other factors,” and that it will conduct an additional “exclusion process” on other products.
The earlier proposed tariff on $300 billion worth of goods would have essentially blanketed all Chinese imports, which totaled roughly $558 billion in 2018, with tariffs.
Apple CEO Tim Cook said Thursday that the majority of iPhones sold in the U.S. in the current fiscal quarter will be sourced from India, while iPads and other devices will come from Vietnam as the company works to avoid the impact of President Trump’s tariffs on its business. Apple’s earnings for the first three months of the year topped Wall Street’s expectations thanks to high demand for its iPhones, and the company said tariffs had a limited effect on the fiscal second quarter’s results. Cook added that for the current quarter, assuming things don’t change, Apple expects to see $900 million added to its costs as a result of the tariffs.
