The stock market is off to another miserable day after massive tariffs go into effect

Asian stocks were mostly lower and US stock futures tumbled Wednesday after President Donald Trump’s enormous “reciprocal” tariffs went into effect, upending global trade.

Asian stocks were mostly lower and US stock futures tumbled Wednesday after President Donald Trump’s enormous “reciprocal” tariffs went into effect, upending global trade. The tariffs, America’s largest in a century, place massive across-the-board import taxes, some as high as 50%, on dozens of nations. Fear has gripped investors across the world as the tariffs threaten to plunge the global and US economies into a recession this year. Businesses and consumers will end up footing those massive tariff bills, and uncertainty has led to a slowdown in hiring and consumer spending. Japan’s Nikkei index plunged 4%, and the Hang Seng tumbled 1.5% after catching a momentary breather Tuesday. A day earlier, on Monday, the Hang Seng tanked in a 13% rout – the biggest daily decline for the index since the 1997 Asian financial crisis. South Korea’s benchmark Kospi index headed into bear market territory on Wednesday, a decline of 20% from a recent peak, after the country announced $1.3 billion in emergency support measures for its auto industry as it seeks to mitigate the blow of the Trump administration’s tariffs. The index lost more than 1% in early trading, falling about 20% from a peak reached in July 2024. Markets in Taiwan also fell sharply. But the Shanghai stock market was eking out a slight gain, an outlier in a sea of red Wednesday. US stock futures were sharply lower after a topsy-turvy Tuesday that at first looked like a strong bounce-back from several days of massive declines. But in an afternoon press conference Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said China had missed its deadline to peel back a 34% retaliatory tariff imposed on US goods Friday. So the Trump administration nearly doubled its additional tariff on China Wednesday morning.