Upbeat US jobs data, that precede the 'Liberation day' tariff announcements, is falling on deaf ears ahead of Friday’s open on Wall Street.
Today’s March non-farm payroll report revealed that the US economy added many more new jobs last month than was forecast by economists – at 228,000 new positions versus a predicted 140,000.
The US unemployment rate however increased to 4.2% in March, from 4.1%.
The better-than-expected jobs news is likely to quickly become out of date, or at least overlooked, as Donald Trump’s ‘trade war’ threatens to spiral.
China this afternoon, ahead of the US jobs data and Wall Street open, announced it would levy a 34% retaliatory tariff on all goods imported from the United States.
In the premarket, the Dow Jones index is seen losing another 1,200 points (or 3%) adding to the 1,679 points lost since Trump’s tariff announcement as of Thursday’s close.
The S&P is similarly trading 2.6% lower in premarket dealing, down 133 points to 5,291, and the Nasdaq is off 455 points or 2.4% at 18,221.
“In the last 48 hours, the cornerstones of global trade have shifted so dramatically due to Trump's tariff announcements that the employment figures were already outdated by the time they were freshly released,” CMC Markets chief analyst Jochen Stanzl said in a note.
“At present, it is simply too early to say how the jobs market will develop in this new environment.
“Even a glance at the jobs market situation in March does little to help.”