Dow falls 230 points at open after Trump tweets that 'trade wars are good'

pulse

March 2, 2018 2:31 PM

Global markets were whacked after the President went on an early morning Twitter rant about trade wars.

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Stocks are continuing their slide Friday, with the Dow Jones industrial average opening down 230 points, or 0.95%, after President said that trade wars are good.

"When a country (USA) is losing many billions of dollars on trade with virtually every country it does business with, trade wars are good, and easy to win," Trump tweeted. "Example, when we are down $100 billion with a certain country and they get cute, don't trade anymore-we win big. It's easy!"

On Thursday, Trump confirmed new 25% taxes on imported steel and 10% on imported aluminum would be announced next week, sending the Dow down almost 600 points at its lowest levels.

closed down 2.5% Friday, and Germany's DAX was down 1.96% at the time of writing.

The news also raised the spectre of a trade war, in which the US and other countries increase protectionist measures back and forth. Economists say such a fight would ultimately increase prices for US consumers and possibly lead to a broad economic slowdown.

"Extremely concerning stance," Paul Mortimer-Lee, chief US economist for BNP Paribas, said in response to Trump's tweet. "History suggests trade wars lead to everyone losing."

This story is developing and will be updated…

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