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Live updates: Trump news, tariffs rattle stock market, US-China trade war
Consumer sentiment plunged 11% this month to its second-lowest reading on record going back to 1952.
President Donald Trump’s volatile trade war, which threatens higher inflation, has significantly weighed on Americans’ moods these past few months. That malaise worsened leading up to Trump’s announcement last week of sweeping tariffs, according to the survey.
“This decline was, like the last month’s, pervasive and unanimous across age, income, education, geographic region and political affiliation,” Joanne Hsu, the survey’s director, said in a release, citing “growing worries about trade war developments that have oscillated over the course of the year.”
While Trump announced another U-turn this week, pausing his “reciprocal” tariffs on many countries, the deepening trade war with China and general uncertainty surrounding his trade policy is having clear impacts.
Here are two other storylines we’re tracking:
Cost to US households: The estimated cost of Trump’s tariffs for the typical middle-class household is now $3,700 a year, according to The Budget Lab at Yale, up from an estimated $3,443.
The lab published updated research to reflect the fact that tariffs on China are even higher than previously realized, now at least 145%.
The average American will get hit by even higher costs than the middle-income one, with tariffs costing the average household $4,700 per year from higher prices, The Budget Lab said.
Investors “running away” from US assets: Meanwhile, rising yields on US Treasuries show investors are “running away from American assets,” rather than toward them as in previous financial panics, according to Gillian Tett, a columnist at the Financial Times.
Tett told CNN the movement is a “striking sign,” as the yield on the 10-year US Treasury bond topped 4.5%.
If bond yields continue to rise, US consumers will have to pay more for their mortgages, companies will find it harder to raise funds, and it will put “pressure” on the American government when it comes to servicing its debt, Tett said.