Exemption, seen as a climbdown, includes laptops and chips, and is likely to help firms such as Apple and Nvidia
US stock markets were expected to stage a recovery on Monday after Donald Trump excluded imports of smartphones and laptops from his tariff regime late on Friday night.
Shares in Apple and chip maker Nvidia were on course to soar after tariffs on their products imported into the US were lifted for 90 days.
We cannot return to the status quo before ‘liberation day’, with western economies hollowed out by free-market capitalism
Fundamentally wrong, brutal and paranoid. A preacher of voodoo economics, attacking the US’s allies and enemies alike. Condemnation of Donald Trump in the chaos since his “liberation day” has been swift.
For most people the self-inflicted damage makes no sense, and rightly so.
As the economic and political pressure became unbearable, the US president changed course – but has the damage been done?
He vowed: “My policies will never change.” He insisted: “Sometimes you have to take medicine to fix something.” He boasted: “I know what I’m doing.” And at 9.33am on Wednesday, he entreated: “BE COOL. Everything is going to work out well.”
But less than four hours later, Donald Trump blinked. As the economic and political pressure became unbearable, the US president announced on social media that he would pause for 90 days higher trade tariffs for most countries, excluding China.