Original Article Title: "Trump Plays 'Tariff Magic,' Sending Global Markets into a Spin"
Original Article Author: Mary Liu, via BitpushNews
U.S. President Trump suddenly announced the suspension of retaliatory tariffs against non-retaliatory countries on April 9 local time, this "about-face" not only caught Wall Street analysts off guard, but also triggered a storm in the global capital markets.
A policy shift stimulated a collective rebound in global risk assets. The cryptocurrency market reacted most fiercely, with the price of Bitcoin soaring 8% within an hour of the announcement, briefly surpassing the $83,000 mark. Other major coins saw even greater rebounds, with XRP and Solana both rising over 11%.
The traditional financial markets also saw a long-awaited celebration. The S&P 500 index surged 9.5% in a single day, marking its largest one-day gain since the 2008 financial crisis. The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq Composite Index also rose by 8.2% and 10.1%, respectively. Cryptocurrency-related stocks performed particularly well, with Coinbase's stock price soaring 17% and MicroStrategy surging 24%.
Over the past two weeks, Trump has been sticking to a hardline stance, and the rapid shift was unexpected. This indicates that Trump's policy "flexibility" far exceeds market expectations, reflecting the extreme sensitivity of global capital to Trump's trade policy changes.
This dramatic change caught many Wall Street analysts off guard, forcing them to revise their research reports overnight. Goldman Sachs made an emergency adjustment to its economic forecast within just one hour, reducing the probability of a U.S. economic recession in the next 12 months from 65% to 45%, setting a record for the fastest correction on Wall Street.
Jan Hatzius, Chief Economist at Goldman Sachs, explained in the updated report: "Our previous recession forecast was based on the assumption of comprehensive tariff increases, but the policy environment has now changed." However, the bank remains cautious, forecasting that U.S. GDP growth may slow to 0.5% by 2025.
Wall Street quickly formed two distinct camps in response. Bill Ackman, the head of Pershing Square Capital, issued three consecutive tweets praising this decision as a "textbook case of modern trade negotiations." This usually cautious hedge fund giant rarely shows optimism, and his funds have hurriedly increased their positions in industrial stocks by $1.2 billion.
However, "Bond King" Bill Gross holds a starkly different view, warning in an investment memo: "When market swings become a derivative of the president's mood, we are essentially trading the 'Trump put.' This is directly reflected in market data: Goldman Sachs has observed hedge funds frenetically buying volatility derivatives for hedging purposes."
Ben Kurland, CEO of the cryptocurrency research platform DYOR, analyzed: "Trump's 90-day tariff pause is a strategic breather—he has temporarily eased short-term market pressure without relinquishing any bargaining chips, clearly illustrating his transactional, not ideological, approach. This move has calmed investors' anxieties, provided a temporary sense of stability to businesses, but the time frame is not long enough to prompt a genuine supply chain shift or investment decisions."
Market analysts are reminding investors to stay vigilant. Grayscale's Head of Research, Zach Pandl, pointed out: "Short-term volatility cannot mask structural risks, fundamental issues such as a weakened dollar, high inflation, and supply chain restructuring remain unresolved."
Morgan Stanley's monitoring data shows that institutional investors are adjusting their portfolio structures, allocating more funds to safe-haven assets such as gold, U.S. Treasury bonds, indicating a defensive posture, signaling that professional investors are cautious about the future.
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