“BE COOL!” urged President Donald Trump early Wednesday amid widespread dismay at global tariffs that went into effect overnight. By mid-afternoon, facing massive blowback, he reversed course, announcing a 90-day suspension of most new import taxes, fueling a market buying frenzy after a dismal week.Media and tech stocks, which had been trading sideways today after suffering huge losses in recent sessions, immediately shot higher on the tariff reprieve Trump unveiled on Truth Social. The Dow Jones Industrial Average surged more than 2,700 points with the Nasdaq up nearly 10% and the S&P 500 also skyrocketing. Media stocks surged, with battered Warner Bros. Discovery shares jumping 15%. Disney is up by 10%, Paramount by 9%, Netflix by 8%. Major gainers include Roku, with an 18% jump, and Snap, up 15%.It’s been an incredibly rocky time as companies, investors, analysts and economists try to sketch out the impact of tariffs on business and game out the odds of a recession. For media and entertainment, that’s meant a hard look at advertising — just ahead of Upfront presentations in May — and at the potential of higher film and TV production costs, retaliatory taxes on digital/ streaming services, fewer Hollywood films accepted into China, and a plunge in foreign travel to U.S. theme parks, among other scenarios.Reciprocal tariffs on China, the nation’s third-largest trading partner, went the other direction today, rising from an already surreal 104% to 125% due to what Trump called “lack of respect.”“Based on the lack of respect that China has shown to the World’s Markets, I am hereby raising the Tariff charged to China by the United States of America to 125%, effective immediately. At some point, hopefully in the near future, China will realize that the days of ripping off the U.S.A., and other Countries, is no longer sustainable or acceptable,” the president wrote on his social media platform Truth Social.“Conversely, and based on the fact that more than 75 Countries have called Representatives of the United States, including the Departments of Commerce, Treasury, and the USTR, to negotiate a solution to the subjects being discussed relative to Trade, Trade Barriers, Tariffs, Currency Manipulation, and Non Monetary Tariffs, and that these Countries have not, at my strong suggestion, retaliated in any way, shape, or form against the United States, I have authorized a 90 day PAUSE, and a substantially lowered Reciprocal Tariff during this period, of 10%, also effective immediately. Thank you for your attention to this matter!” he said in his post.A 10% tariff on goods from around the world went into effect over the weekend.
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