US stock futures tumble after China hits back at Trump's tariffs

• US stock futures tumbled again on Friday as China vowed to retaliate against Trump's latest tariffs.
• Asian markets ended the week sharply lower and European markets also declined for a second day.
• Trump said he is open to cutting deals if the US gets "something that's so phenomenal" in return.

Stocks are plunging for a second day as investors continue to balk at President Donald Trump's sweeping tariffs and the retaliatory measures announced by China on Friday.

Beijing said it will start charging a 34% tariff on all US imports from April 10, after the Trump administration said it would impose an additional 34% tariff on Chinese goods entering the US.

Wall Street had its worst day in five years on Thursday, and the pain continued Friday with stocks falling in Asia and Europe and US futures down sharply in premarket trading.

As of 8:00 a.m. ET, S&P 500 futures were down 3.5%, Nasdaq 100 futures were down 3.6%, and Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were down 3.4% or about 1,400 points.

China's move overshadowed better-than-expected nonfarm payrolls of 228,000 jobs for March — higher than the revised February total of 117,000, per Bureau of Labor Statistics. The unemployment rate ticked up to 4.2%, slightly higher than forecast.

In a Truth Social post on Friday, Trump vowed that his policies would "never change," and told investors putting "massive amounts of money" into the United States: "This is a great time to get rich, richer than ever before!!"

Trump's comments may have been a response to French President Emmanuel Macron's Thursday call for European companies to put planned investment in the US on hold following the tariff announcement.

George Saravelos, a Deutsche Bank analyst, said in a note that markets were "pricing in a global recession."

"Another jolt of fear has shot through markets, as China's threat of retaliation has materialised," said Susannah Streeter of Hargreaves Lansdown in a morning note.

The "big concern" is an escalating trade war that would have "major implications for the global economy," she added.

European markets fell further, with the broad STOXX 600 down about 4.8% and Germany's DAX down 4.1%. London's FTSE 100 and France's CAC 40 were both down 3.9%.

Banking stocks took the biggest hit, with Spain's Sabadell down 12% and lenders including Barclays accounting for two of the five biggest fallers on the FTSE 100.

Asia, which faces the brunt of President Donald Trump's tariffs announced Wednesday, closed the week in the red as investors feared the new levies could lead to recessions in many countries.

Asia uncertainty

Dilin Wu, a research strategist at Pepperstone, told Business Insider that Trump's "overly simplistic and aggressive calculation" for tariff rates was particularly painful for small Asian economies.

Southeast Asian countries — many of which have become supply chain hubs for companies diversifying manufacturing activities from China — stand to be some of the worst affected by US tariffs.

"In the short term, uncertainty surrounding policy continues to cloud the markets, with defensive strategies taking the lead and little room for a rebound in Asian risk assets," Wu said.

China, Hong Kong, and Indonesia's markets were closed on Friday, but the rest of the region was a sea of red. Japan's Nikkei 225 ended 2.7% lower, Australia's ASX 200 fell 2.4%, India's Sensex shed 1.2%, and South Korea's Kospi dipped 0.9%.

'Too late to panic'

The CBOE Volatility Index or VIX, known as Wall Street's fear gauge, surged as high as 45 for the first time since 2020 as investors braced for choppy trading in the weeks ahead.

Oil futures tanked with US crude down almost 8% at under $62 a barrel, and Brent crude down 7% at about $65. The declines reflected fears that slower global economic growth would curb demand, and a surprise decision from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries to ramp up output.

The dollar edged lower due to concerns over the potential impact of a global trade war on the US economic outlook.

The price of gold, a popular haven asset, had rallied to record highs this week but was slightly down Friday at around $3,120 per troy ounce.

"It's too late to panic," veteran analyst Ed Yardeni said on a Bloomberg podcast on Thursday. "If you got a good portfolio, you stay with it."

Yardeni said he thinks intense pushback to Trump's "tariff wall" will prompt negotiations for changes to the high levies.

On Thursday, Trump told reporters that he would be open to cutting deals if countries give the US "something that's so phenomenal" in return.