Nigeria, U.S, and other global stock markets could be headed for their worst season as investors fear Trump’s new tariffs will spark a major trade war.
United States President Donald Trump on Wednesday announced sweeping tariffs of at least 10 percent on all countries, effective April 5, and even higher levies for some countries including Nigeria.
Ahead of Wednesday’s new tariffs announcement by Trump, Lagos-based Vetiva Research analysts had in their post-trading note said, “The market remains in a consolidation phase, with selective buying in Banking sector stocks offsetting broad-based weakness in Insurance and Oil & Gas counters. Investors should expect some volatility, with potential bargain-hunting in key sectors”.
Also, Futureview research analysts who had expected the Nigerian stock market to be poised for a positive trend this week, “driven by renewed investor interest in undervalued stocks”, noted that favourable corporate actions and strong earnings reports “are expected to boost sentiment and support market recovery”.
Read also: Trump says stock market won’t influence tariff decisions
At the close of trading on Thursday the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) All-Share Index (ASI) and equities market capitalisation which opened at 105,547.16 points and N66.185 trillion respectively closed lower, its the second time this week, by 0.02 percent to 105,525.26 points and N66.155 trillion.
In 13,667 deals, investors exchanged 397,118,887 shares worth N8.743 billion.
U.S. markets slid Thursday in one of its worst days in years as investors grappled with the threat that President Trump’s sweeping new tariff plan will hurt economic growth and corporate profits, according to Wall Street Journal.
Major stock indexes dropped as much as 5 percent and stood poised to suffer their worst day in more than two years. The U.S. market has lost roughly $2.7 trillion in market cap Thursday morning, on track for its largest decline since March 2020.
Also, the Dow industrials dropped about 1200 points, nearly 3 percent. The tech-heavy Nasdaq, which powered the market higher for years, slid 4.6 percent, led by big declines in Nvidia, Apple and Amazon.com.
In UK, the UK’s FTSE 100 share index fell 1.5 percent and other European markets also dropped, echoing falls seen earlier in Asia.
Trump announced sweeping new tariffs on U.S. imports on Wednesday to effective levels unseen in a century. The announcement spurred alarmed reactions worldwide, in both markets and comments from U.S. trade partners. Asian and European stocks dropped following the announcement, and U.S. stocks fell sharply after today’s market open.
“We will all be parsing the details, but one thing is utterly clear: this is a U.S. declaration of economic war on the whole world,” said CFR expert Edward Alden on X.
Traders are concerned about the global economic impact of Trump’s tariffs, which they fear could stoke inflation and stall growth.
“This is the worst-case scenario,” said Jay Hatfield, chief executive at Infrastructure Capital Advisors.
