"When President Donald Trump made his "Liberation Day" speech on April 2, announcing sweeping tariffs across a range of sectors, markets reacted sharply. Investors feared a replay of the disruptive trade battles of his first term, and stocks dropped as they tried to assess how new levies might ripple through global supply chains. But six months on, the story looks different."
"At first, the news rattled European and Asian drugmakers. Zealand Pharma dropped nearly 3%, Novo Nordisk lost 1.6%, and India's Sun Pharmaceutical and Divi's Laboratories fell more than 3% in early trading. The Stoxx 600 Healthcare index swung between gains and losses before closing flat. Yet European equities as a whole closed higher, underscoring how investors now discount Trump's tariff announcements."
Sweeping tariffs announced on April 2 initially caused investor panic and stock sell-offs as markets assessed potential global supply-chain disruptions. Over the following six months, carve-outs, negotiated deals and exemptions substantially reduced the effective level of tariffs, softening their economic impact. Markets have become less sensitive to new tariff announcements, with stocks rebounding and traders treating surprises with indifference. Sector-specific declines, such as early falls in drugmakers and other exporters, were short-lived as broader European equities closed higher. Observers cite lower-than-announced effective tariffs and stronger-than-expected consumer resilience to price increases as reasons for the muted market response.
Read at Fortune
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