But Friday delivered a harsh reminder of Trump’s volatile policymaking and penchant for brinkmanship, when he threatened a 50% tariff on the European Union and a 25% levy on smart phones if companies including Apple Inc and Samsung Electronics Co failed to move production to the US.
Investors were growing optimistic that Donald Trump’s trade wars had started to calm down. His latest tariff broadsides quickly disabused them of that notion.
Initial agreements with the UK and China buoyed hopes on Wall Street and in corporate boardrooms that the US president was starting to peel back the highest US tariffs in nearly a century.
