China, meanwhile, has been seeking to join forces with other countries in apparent hopes of forming a united front against Trump. The world’s second-largest economy is also ramping up its own countermeasures to Trump’s tariffs.
The stock price of Warner Bros. Discovery, the company behind “A Minecraft Movie,” dropped 12.5% for one of Wall Street’s sharpest losses after China said Thursday it will “appropriately reduce the number of imported U.S. films.” The Walt Disney Co.’s stock sank 6.8%
A spokesperson for the China Film Administration said it is “inevitable” that Chinese audiences would find American films less palatable given the “wrong move by the U.S. to wantonly implement tariffs on China.”
That was after Trump and his Treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, sent a clear message to other countries Wednesday after announcing their pause on tariffs for most countries: “Do not retaliate, and you will be rewarded.”
The European Union said Thursday it will put its trade retaliation measures on hold for 90 days and leave room for a negotiated solution.
Thursday’s swings also hit the bond market, which has historically played the role of enforcer against politicians and economic policies it deemed imprudent. It helped topple the United Kingdom’s Liz Truss in 2022, for example, whose 49 days made her Britain’s shortest-serving prime minister.
Earlier this week, big jumps for U.S. Treasury yields had rattled the market, so much that Trump said Wednesday he had been watching how investors were “getting a little queasy.”
Several reasons could have been behind the sharp, sudden rise in yields. Hedge funds may have sold Treasurys in order to raise cash, and investors outside the United States may be dumping their U.S. government bonds because of the trade war. Regardless of the reasons behind it, higher Treasury yields crank up pressure on the stock market and push rates higher for mortgages and other loans for U.S. households and businesses.
The 10-year Treasury yield had calmed following Trump’s U-turn on tariffs, dropping all the way back to 4.30% shortly after the release of a better-than-expected report on inflation Thursday morning. That’s after it had shot up to nearly 4.50% Wednesday morning from just 4.01% at the end of last week.
As Thursday progressed, though, the 10-year Treasury yield climbed once again and reached 4.40 per cent. It was trading at 4.39 per cent early Friday.
In other dealings early Friday, U.S. benchmark crude oil lost 37 cents to $59.70 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Stock Exchange.
Brent crude, the international standard, fell 30 cents to $63.03 per barrel.
