Tariffs live: Federal Reserve threatens to step in as Trump still defends levies

Rupert Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal flamed Donald Trump in yet another critical editorial, this time accusing him of “making it up as he goes,” with his tariff decisions hurting the United States and its allies.

“You almost have to smile” when the president claims the shuddering economy is “all going according to plan,” scoffed the editorial Thursday.

According to Reuters, Apple has been working to airlift iPhones to India in a bid to prevent prices from increasing after tariffs were imposed on China.

About six cargo jets with a capacity of 100 tons each have flown out since March this week just as new tariffs kicked in, a source and an Indian government official told the news agency.

“The packaged weight of an iPhone 14 and its charging cable come to about 350 grams (12.35 oz), Reuters measurements show, implying the total cargo of 600 tons comprised about 1.5 million iPhones, after accounting for some packaging weight,” their report estimated.

Apple’s strategy is rumored to have been eight months in the making, “Apple stepped up air shipments to meet its goal of a 20 per cent increase in usual production at iPhone plants,” Reuters claims.

This was made possible “by adding workers, and temporarily extending operations at the biggest Foxconn India factory to Sundays”, the source added.

President Donald Trump’s administration wants to strike 90 trade deals in 90 days, but the challenges to quickly resolving the president’s trade war are already apparent.

European Union trade chief Maros Sefcovic will on Monday be among the first foreign trade officials to come to Washington for urgent negotiations about the steep tariffs that Trump announced on April 2.

But when Sefcovic arrives, Trump’s top tariff negotiator, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, will be in Argentina backing their economic reforms.

His absence highlights doubts among trade experts about how effectively the administration can manage so many simultaneous negotiations and the overall prospects for reaching 90 deals in 90 days.

“Teeing up these decisions is going to take some serious negotiations,” said Wendy Cutler, a former US Trade Representative chief negotiator who heads the Asia Society Policy Institute.

“There’s no way during this timeframe we’re doing a comprehensive agreement with any of these countries.”

Bank of England interest rate-setter Megan Greene said on Saturday it was unclear what US President Donald Trump’s import tariffs would do to UK inflation.

“The implications for inflation, though, are somewhat ambiguous,” she said, noting the possibility of Chinese exports being diverted away from the US and towards Europe which could push down on prices.

But the most important thing to watch is what happens to currencies, Greene said.

“The key channel, really is exchange rates, and that’s been really difficult because exchange rates haven’t operated in the past week as the models would suggest,” she said.

“The dollar has fallen instead of appreciating as you would expect.”

A stronger dollar would normally push up inflation in other countries, Greene said.

Rachel Reeves has said that the British Government is “resolved” to do everything it can to secure the “best deal possible” with the US on tariffs.

Before Trump’s 90-day pause, the UK was faced with a 10 per cent rate seen as favourable compared with others like the EU, which faced a 20 per cent tariff.

Now, negotiations are ongoing for the future of the “special relationship” with hopes a breakthrough can be made in the coming days.

Reeves said: “We continue to engage with our counterparts in the United States and of course we want to secure the best deal possible for British jobs and British industry. And we are absolutely … resolved to do everything we can.

“But, at the same time, we also want to improve trading relations with other countries around the world.”

But Kevin Hassett, senior economic adviser to Trump, previously suggested the blanket 10 per cent tariff rate was likely to be a “baseline” and anything below this would be “extraordinary”.

Director of the Chinese Communist Party Wang Yi has blasted tariffs that have led to a “chaotic” international situation.

He met with Rafael Mariano Grossi, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency in Beijing on Friday to discuss China’s response to Trump’s decision to hike duties on Chinese goods to 145 per cent.

In a post on X, the Chinese ambassador to the US, Xie Fen, relayed their conversation.

He said Mr Grossi was told: “The current turbulent and chaotic international situation is largely caused by a certain major power clinging to the belief in the supremacy of strength, prioritizing self-interest, and engaging in unilateral bullying.

“China stands up to oppose hegemonism, not only to safeguard our legitimate rights and interests, but also to protect the common interests of the international community, and to prevent a return to the jungle world where the strong prey on the weak.

“The wheel of history cannot be turned back.”

A survey of more than 15 countries including key US trading partners has suggested confusion surrounding Donald Trump approach to tariffs.

“We really don’t know what the Trump administration wants,” one diplomat from an Asian country, who is close to the negotiations told Politico.

“We’ve been told literally nothing,” said another official representing an Asian country.

The confusion they said suggests a deal-making process that’s “reactive, with no clear direction.”

It came after the US President told reporters: “When people understand what we’re doing, I think the dollar will go way up.

“The bond market’s going good. It had a little moment but I solved that problem very quickly.”

China has said it will ignore further levies by US president Donald Trump after Beijing hiked levies on American goods to 125 per cent.

“Even if the US imposes higher tariffs, it would no longer make economic sense and ultimately go down as a joke in world economic history,” China’s finance ministry said yesterday.

“Given that it’s already impossible for the Chinese market to accept US imports at the current tariff level if the United States imposes further tariffs on Chinese products, China will ignore it,” it said.

President Donald Trump had perhaps one of the biggest setbacks for his agenda this week. After a whipsaw performance in overnight markets on Tuesday evening, Trump blinked and announced a 90-day pause on his “reciprocal tariffs.”

Trump himself admitted this came after markets got “a little queasy.” It also came after JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, arguably the most respected executive on Wall Street, warned that a recession was likely. It turns out that even as the Republican Congress and the courts largely stand by, one thing can grind Trump to a halt: the bond market, which went haywire on Tuesday evening.

But Trump did not just make Wall Street sick. The University of Michigan’s survey of consumers found that consumer sentiment dropped for the fourth straight month in a row, 30 percent since December 2024.

And this does not erase the fact that Trump still slapped on 145 percent duties on China and an across-the-board tariff of 10 percent for other countries.

Eric Garcia reports.

Senior Senate Democrats have written a letter asking the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to investigate whether president Donald Trump engaged in insider trading and market manipulation.

Mr Trump sent financial markets into a tailspin by announcing sweeping import taxes on dozens of trade partners last week, before rolling them back to 10 per cent last Wednesday for 90 days.

The call for investigation was prompted by Mr Trump’s statement on Wednesday when he claimed that it was a “great time to buy” stocks. Shortly after, he paused most of the tariffs imposed last week.

“We urge the SEC to investigate whether the tariff announcements, which caused the market crash and subsequent partial recovery, enriched administration insiders and friends at the expense of the American public and whether any insiders, including the president’s family, had prior knowledge of the tariff pause that they abused to make stock trades ahead of the president’s announcement,” said the letter.

House minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said earlier that Democrats “need to get to the bottom of the possible stock manipulation that is unfolding before the American people, including what if any advanced knowledge did members of the House Republican Conference have of Trump’s decision to pause the reckless tariffs that he put into place?”

“There are several members of Congress who will be aggressively demanding answers and transparency, particularly as it relates to the stock purchase decisions that may have occurred over the last few days.”