Wall Street faces more chaos as China, EU retaliate on trade

Wall Street markets opened to another topsy-turvy session Wednesday as China and the EU countered President Trump’s aggressive use of tariffs to rebalance trade.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average and other major indexes dived before fluctuating between red and green.

Investors are trying to make sense of Mr. Trump’s plan to reorder trade by imposing a 10% tariff on all imports and heftier levies on China, plus Asian and Latin trading partners, European allies and small African and island nations. Those reciprocal tariffs took effect Wednesday.

“BE COOL! Everything is going to work out well. The USA will be bigger and better than ever before!” Mr. Trump wrote Wednesday on Truth Social, adding later: “THIS IS A GREAT TIME TO BUY!!!”

Wall Street investors and some of Mr. Trump’s GOP allies are concerned that his plan will spark a deeper trade war that increases prices and destabilizes the economy.

JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon, speaking on Fox Business, said he expects a recession from the tariffs.

“I think probably that’s a likely outcome,” he told host Maria Bartiromo.

Mr. Dimon has supported tariffs, saying people should “get over it” if the levies are needed to bolster national security.

“Take a deep breath, negotiate some trade deals. That’s the best thing they can do,” he said Wednesday. “I’m taking a calm view. But I think it could get worse if we don’t make some progress here.”

Some nations are taking action.

The European Commission approved tariffs that retaliate against Mr. Trump’s steel and aluminum tariffs, issued earlier this year. The levies from the EU, which the president says has had particularly harsh barriers for decades, will take effect on April 15 and target $24 billion worth of U.S. products, including motorcycles, poultry, and steel and aluminum.

China, meanwhile, increased its tariff on U.S. goods from 34% to 84% in a tit-for-tat response to Mr. Trump’s decision to impose levies totaling 104% on Chinese goods.