European shares opened lower on Wednesday morning, while Asian markets logged modest gains.
France’s CAC 40 declined 0.5% in early trading to 7,837.50, while Germany’s DAX dipped nearly 1.0% to 22,325.98. Britain’s FTSE 100 slipped 0.6% to 8,581.60.
The future for the S&P 500 was down 0.3% while that for the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.2%.
In Asian trading, Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 gained 0.3% to finish at 35,725.87.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was virtually unchanged at 23,202.53, while the Shanghai Composite inched up less than 0.1% to 3,350.13.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 added 0.1% to 7,934.50. South Korea’s Kospi dipped 0.6% to 2,505.86.
“Amid the uncertainty on tariffs details, risk sentiments were broadly fragile,” Tan Jing Yi at Mizuho Bank said in a commentary note.
Markets have been particularly volatile recently, and momentum has been swinging not just day to day but hour to hour because of uncertainty about what Trump will do with tariffs — and by how much they will worsen inflation and erode growth for economies.
Companies already feeling the impact
Companies are saying they’re already feeling effects from Trump’s trade war, even ahead of Wednesday when Trump has promised to roll out a set of tariffs, or taxes on imports from other countries, that he says will free the US from a reliance on foreign goods.
Even if Trump announces less-punishing tariffs than feared on Wednesday, though, the stop-and-start rollout of his trade strategy may by itself cause US households and businesses to freeze their spending, which would damage the economy. Trump has pushed for tariffs in part to bring manufacturing jobs back to the United States from other countries.
On Tuesday, the S&P 500 rose 0.4% and the Dow edged less than 0.1% lower. The Nasdaq composite added 0.9%.
In other dealing early Wednesday, benchmark US crude rose 3 cents to $71.23 a barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, fell 2 cents to $74.47.
The US dollar inched down to 149.49 Japanese yen from 149.62 yen. The euro cost $1.0808, up from $1.0791.
