Key points
- Argentine stocks fall more than 7pc
- Brazil’s Bovespa Index loses 2.96pc
- Mexican stocks plunged 4.87pc
MEXICO CITY, Mexico: Mexican stocks plunged 4.87 per cent on Friday, despite the country being left off US President Donald Trump’s reciprocal tariffs list, amid panic in global markets over the start of a trade war.
According to AFP, Argentine stocks also took a battering, falling more than seven per cent in Friday trading, two days after Trump imposed sweeping import duties on dozens of nations including Argentina.
The Mexican rout came despite stocks ending marginally up on Thursday, by 0.54 per cent, reflecting initial relief in Latin America’s second-biggest economy at having dodged Trump’s so-called “Liberation Day” tariffs.
If Mexico was spared, Latin America’s biggest economy Brazil, and Argentina, the third-largest, were not.
Argentina’s flagship Merval Index fell 7.38 per cent while Brazil’s Bovespa Index lost 2.96 per cent.
Hitting global markets
Both countries were hit with 10 per cent tariffs, like much of Latin America, at the lower end of a spectrum ranging upwards to 50 per cent.
Global stocks have taken a hit following President Trump’s announcement of sweeping new tariffs, which are expected to drive up prices and dampen growth both in the US and globally, according to BBC.
Stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region declined for a second consecutive day.
The S&P 500 tumbled by 4.8 per cent, marking its steepest decline since 2020, while the Nasdaq dropped by 6 per cent and the Dow Jones fell by 4 per cent, according to Times of India.
US boom?
Markets across Europe and Asia also experienced significant losses, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 down 1.8 per cent in early trading on Friday.
Big consumer brands such as Nike, Apple, and Target were among the hardest hit, with their stocks dropping by more than 9 per cent.
At the White House, Trump assured reporters that the US economy would “boom” as a result of the minimum 10 per cent tariff he plans to impose on global imports, with the aim of boosting federal revenue and bringing American manufacturing back home.
