Trump says reciprocal tariffs will return in 90 days if countries fail to strike deals; Stock markets close low again

8:03 p.m. | Canadian snowbirds love Palm Springs. But Trump is making them say ‘Sorry! We’re leaving’

Christopher Climie, who recently moved to Palm Springs, was supposed to be hosting visitors from his native Canada this week.

Ten friends — all gay men, like Climie — had planned to fly in from Toronto. They were going to trade the cold and rain for a hot desert weekend at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, where their beloved Lady Gaga is set to perform.

But because of tensions between Canada and President Donald Trump, they cancelled their plans.

Read the full story from Hailey Branson-Potts of Los Angeles Times:

7:11 p.m. | Manitoba government adopts, fixes torn Canadian flag from football team

The large Canadian flag that was recently draped on the front of the Manitoba legislature is being repaired for a second time and is being adopted by the Manitoba government.

The nine-by-18-metre flag was property of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers football team and was brought out onto the field for the national anthem before each home game.

The provincial government borrowed it in early March and had it hung above the legislature’s main entrance as a symbol of the resistance to tariffs threatened by U.S. President Donald Trump.

Read the full report from Steve Lambert of The Canadian Press:

6:18 p.m. | Opinion: An American governor comes to town in the middle of Donald Trump’s trade war. Say what?

Doug Ford played the role of gracious Canadian host to his felicitous American visitor, hailing Gov. Spencer Cox as “a friend of mine … from the great state of Utah.” As if recognizing a friendly delegation at a U.S. political convention.

For the show must go on, no matter how surreal. Business as usual, no matter how bad for business in these tariff times.

Read the full column from the Star’s Martin Regg Cohn:

5:20 p.m. | B.C. premier tells government to cancel American contracts ‘wherever viable’

British Columbia’s premier says U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to pause much of his tariffs for the rest of the world while excluding Canada is “insulting.”

David Eby made the comments while announcing that he is directing B.C.‘s Crown corporations, ministries and health authorities to cancel American contracts “wherever viable,” in the latest move to cut reliance on goods from the United States.

Read the full report from Ashley Joannou of The Canadian Press:

5:13 p.m. | Danielle Smith says Canada’s next prime minister needs de-escalate trade tensions with China

On Canadian tariffs against Chinese electric vehicles, steel and aluminum, which aligned Canada with the U.S. against dumping by Chinese manufacturers, Smith says she agrees with Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe — those are just hurting Canadian exports because of China’s retaliatory tariffs on canola and pork.

“We have 100% tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, even though there’s very little demand for them in Canada, to protect an electric vehicle industry that doesn’t quite exist yet in Canada,” she said. “Meanwhile, the products that people do want, canola and pork, are being punished.”

“So there clearly needs to be some kind of detente there. The next prime minister needs to call China and try to work out some kind of de-escalation of that issue.”

—Tonda MacCharles

4:52 p.m. | Canada’s counter-tariffs doing the most damage to Alberta: Premier Smith

Premier Smith said the counter-tariffs are the ones doing most damage to Alberta’s economy right now.

“And so the sooner we can get to a renegotiated Canada-US free trade agreement, which it looks like the Americans are prepared to do after our election is over, so that we can have a virtually tariff free relationship, like we’ve always enjoyed, I think the better for everybody.”

But Smith did not explicitly state whether she wanted to see Canada’s counter-tariffs lifted when the Star asked her to clarify.

—Tonda MacCharles

4:44 p.m. | Danielle Smith endorses Pierre Poilievre

Smith endorsed Pierre Poilievre from the stage in concluding and urges the audience to do anything they can to get him elected.

“I think that Pierre Poilievre, quite frankly, is the one with the credibility to take us there. So if you can, anything you can do to help get him over the finish line, I think that now’s the time,” she said in an unusually political intervention that would not come as a surprise to the mostly-Conservative audience.

Later, she defended her statement supporting Poilievre, saying “no one’s surprised that, about who I’m voting for, and I’m very, very pleased to have see that he has mass turnout at all of his rallies wherever he goes across the country.”

—Tonda MacCharles

4:31 p.m. | Smith reminds of 19th century U.S. president McKinley’s political fate after similar tariff policies

Smith says she has argued in the U.S. that the President, who likes to cite historical precedent of William McKinley’s tariffs, should take note that his party subsequently lost the mid-term elections and “so that was my warning to them, is that you have to look at what the downstream consequences are of the decisions.

“And we’re already seeing it. We’re seeing in the stock market. We’re hearing it with the stories that are being told by various members of the public who are selling very various businesses who are trying to sell their product to the public.”

“And so the question will be, do the Americans learn the lesson of what tariffs actually do to their country and the global economy early and switch course?“

After the trade war inspired by the 1890 U.S. tariffs, Smith says Canada looked to trade more with Britain, “and so we ended up increasing our trade ties with our European allies.”

—Tonda MacCharles

4:24 p.m. | Danielle Smith condemns Trump tariffs at Conservative event in Ottawa

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, speaking at a conservative think tank’s Ottawa conference, calls the Trump tariffs “unacceptable,” and suggests up front that she is all in for Canada’s cause not just Alberta’s.

“It should go without saying, but let me say it, Canada is worth fighting for, but there are immediate actions that we have to take.”

— Tonda MacCharles

4:15 p.m. | ‘Markets got ahead of themselves’: investing expert 

Canada’s main stock index eked out again Thursday, helped by strength in energy and utilities, while U.S. markets were mixed.

“It’s been a tough week,” said John Zechner, chairman and lead equity manager at J Zechner Associates, amid an “ugly month” overall, led by concern about interest rates.

The S&P/TSX composite index closed up 6.16 points at 19,818.39.

In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 25.83 points at 34,500.66. The S&P 500 index was down 0.65 points at 4,369.71, while the Nasdaq composite was down 26.16 points at 13,290.78.

“Markets got ahead of themselves. A lot of people were really buying into this whole soft landing scenario ... that growth will continue, that the interest rates won’t rise much further,” Zechner said.

Now, bond yields are rising as investors swallow a bitter pill: rates are likely to stay higher for longer, he said, and expectations for rate cuts need to be pushed back further.

Read the full report from the Canadian Press:

4:00 p.m. | Stock markets close low again as Trump’s trade war causes another day of global uncertainty

Stock markets in North America plunged Thursday as traders continue to digest the impact of the growing U.S. trade war with China, while tensions cooled with the European Union.

In Toronto, the TSX Composite Index tumbled in the opening minutes and by 1 p.m., was down 2.8 per cent.

In New York, the S&P500 was down 4.2 per cent, the Dow Jones industrial average 3.5 per cent, and tech-heavy NASDAQ was by just under five per cent.

Read more from Star business reporter Josh Rubin:

3:10 p.m.  | Republican governor praises free trade ‘with our Canadian partners’ after meeting with Doug Ford

Utah’s Republican governor emerged from a meeting with Premier Doug Ford saying he hopes lessons from the Trump tariff debacle help remove trade barriers around the world.

“I believe in the importance of free trade, again, especially with our Canadian partners,” Gov. Spencer Cox, last year’s chair of the influential National Governors Association, said Thursday as stock markets tumbled again.

Read more from the Star’s Rob Ferguson:

2:42 p.m. | Trump tariffs have prompted Vaughan to propose renaming one of its streets

The City of Vaughan is considering changing the name of one of its streets named America Avenue in light of U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs that have sparked an international trade war.

Following a member’s resolution brought by Vaughan mayor Steven Del Duca at the end of February, the city has launched an online public survey to help better understand how America Avenue residents feel about the proposal.

Read the full story from the Star’s Reagan McSwain

2:25 p.m. | These recent tariff moves are ‘classic Trump’: former Trudeau staffer

Brian Clow, former deputy chief of staff and senior advisor on Canada-U.S. issues to Justin Trudeau, said Trump’s latest moves this week on tariffs are classic Trump.

“This President famously likes to be unpredictable, but on tariffs he’s proving to be fairly predictable by repeatedly announcing tariffs only to pause or delay them days later. This is something like the fourth or fifth tariff delay and this Administration isn’t even three months old.”

“They’re backing down for one reason, the severe damage these tariffs and global retaliation are causing to their own economy. They’re not able to stomach the pain.”

Clow said “the Canadian government is right to be relentlessly focused on becoming less reliant on the U.S.”

“With some tariffs in place and others still threatened, the negative effects on the global economy, on investment, and on the stock market will continue while the uncertainty exists.”

1:53 p.m. Trump says reciprocal tariffs will return in 90 days if countries fail to strike deals

Trump says if he cannot make deals with countries on dropping trade barriers during the next 90-day pause on reciprocal tariffs, his tariffs will be implemented.

“If we can’t make the deal that we want to make, or we have to make or that’s, you know, good for both parties, it’s got to be good for both parties, you wouldn’t - then we go back to where we were...We’ll have to see what happens at that time.”

“People understand where we are, what we’re going to do, but it could happen. It’s called flexibility.”

He said that 10 per cent is the “baseline,’ and “every country is different. Some have certain advantages that others don’t have, and certain things we have.”

Asked if he views the EU as one bloc or individual countries, Trump replies “We’re looking at it as one bloc. They’ve been very tough, but they were very smart. They were ready to announce retaliation. And then they heard about what we did with respect to China and others but China, and they said, you know, we’re going to hold back a little bit.”

He calls that “very smart.”

Trump riffs at length again about why he thinks tariffs are good, and that they will bring back steel, auto and pharmaceutical manufacturing to the U.S.

1:40 p.m. Trump ‘reordering the world in a proper way’ U.S. Secretary of State says

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, like every cabinet official, praises Trump, and says “one of the most important things I believe you’ll achieve in your presidency is reordering the world in a proper way.

“For 31 years, more than 31 years now, multiple administrations have allowed the Chinese to de-industrialize this country,” said Rubio.

Before Trump, said Rubio, “Chinese companies can do whatever they want in America, but our companies cannot do anything over there unless they allow it, and even then, they steal our stuff and reverse-engineer it. So just reordering all of that has dramatic implications on the peace and security of the world.”

Trump declines to comment on markets and China today, first turning it over to Bessent, then the President follows up. “We would love to be able to work a deal. They really take advantage of our country for a long period of time,” Trump says.

He repeats comments he’s made often in the past that “I have great respect for President Xi, he’s been, in a true sense, he’s been a friend of mine from all period time, and I think that we’ll end up looking at something that’s really good for both countries.”

Asked to respond to China’s move against American films shown in Canada, Trump prompts laughter, saying “I think I’ve heard of worse.”

1:30 p.m. Homeland Security secretary only briefly discusses border security

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem only briefly talks about border security and “going after cartels,” and instead promotes her department’s work on “declassification and rooting out weaponization, politicization of the intelligence community,” as well as work to investigate “election integrity.”

Noem says she has “evidence of how these electronic voting systems have been vulnerable to hackers for a very long time and vulnerable to exploitation to manipulate the results of the votes being passed.” Noem says more than 100 people are “working around the clock” to “scan the paper” around Sen. Robert Kennedy’s assassination and Martin Luther King’s assassination. “We’ll have those ready to release here in the next few days.”

1:23 p.m. U.S. trade representative slams Biden inaction

U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer laments inaction by the Biden Administration, and tells Trump that the tariffs he imposed show the president is “standing up for American workers in American communities.”

Greer said the countries that are seeking to negotiate deals with the U.S. as a result “represent more than half of global domestic GDP,” and that wouldn’t have happened without his reciprocal tariff threats.

1:17 p.m. Several arrests in Tesla vandalism cases

Attorney General Pam Bondi reports on U.S. President Donald Trump’s directive to prosecute people who are carrying out vandalism on Elon Musk’s electric vehicles at Tesla dealerships and parking lots across the country. Bondi says because of Trump’s order to prosecute “the people who are going after Tesla to the fullest extent of the law,” that “we’ve made four arrests. There will be no negotiations at your directive. They’re all looking at 20 years in prison,” she says, adding there’ll be another “huge arrest on a Tesla dealership” in the next 24 hours.

Musk, who the president put in charge of the newly created and controversial Department of Government Efficiency, is in the cabinet room for this meeting apparently, but has not spoken yet.

1:11 p.m. Treasury secretary tells countries in tariff negotiations to ‘bring your best deal’

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says he has reminded countries that have reached out to him to negotiate tariff deals that Trump will have the final say “so bring your best deal,” and notes the U.S. will increase its debt ceiling for two years in the budget resolution bill, and it will be “done and dusted.”

12:50 p.m. Trump touts ‘big day’ in markets

U.S. President Donald Trump, speaking now at a cabinet meeting, said that, “We had a big day yesterday. There’ll always be transition difficulty, but in history, it was the biggest day in history. Markets. So very, very happy with the way the country is running.”

He said “it’s all going to work” then goes on to admit “there’ll be a transition cost and transition problems, but in the end, it’s going to be, it’s going to be a beautiful thing we’re doing. Again, what we should have done many years ago.

Trump is going around his cabinet table for a few “speeches” by his officials, starting with Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth who boasts that he just got back from Panama and says that “we, along with Panama, are pushing out” China. Howard Lutnick, the commerce secretary, says countries never would have come to the negotiating table without the president and the U.S. is “now getting the respect we deserve.”

Other cabinet officials offer flattering comments to Trump for his leadership, and he responds in kind, saying what a great job they are all doing.

—Tonda MacCharles

12:34 p.m. Amid market turbulence, money managers keep a cool head

Faced with the extreme market turbulence of the past week, money managers are staying the course and relying on their long-term investment strategies while also looking for opportunities amid the panic.

Kevin Burkett, portfolio manager at Burkett Asset Management, says his firm’s strategy isn’t predicated on timing markets or guessing where macroeconomic forces are headed.

Instead, it’s focused on a core basket of what he calls “all-weather businesses” that are less vulnerable to the wild swings of tariff-stressed investors.

There have been extreme selloffs on the markets and a few big swings upward over the past week after U.S. President Donald Trump announced sweeping tariffs on countries around the globe.

Markets dove back into the red Thursday, one day after surging on the news that Trump would pause some of the tariffs for 90 days.

Read more from the Canadian Press

12:20 p.m. Canadian return trips from the U.S. continue year-over-year decline

Canadians making return trips from the U.S. continued to decline year-over-year amid U.S. President Donald Trump’s escalating trade war and heightened border security enforcement.

According to monthly data from Statistics Canada published Thursday, the number of Canadian residents who flew back from trips to the U.S. was down 13.5 per cent in March compared with the same period in 2024. Return trips by car saw an even greater drop, with a nearly 32 per cent decline in land border crossings last month compared with last year.

In all, the new statistics mark the third consecutive month the agency has reported a drop in year-over-year data. In January this year, there was a 6.2 and 6.4 per cent drop in return trips by air and car respectively compared with January 2024. And, in February, there was an even greater 13.1 per cent and 23 per cent drop in the same return trips compared with the previous year.

Read more from the Star’s Nathan Bawaan

11:58 a.m. Carney seeks to minimize impact on Canada with countermeasures

Mark Carney is pressed to explain how far Canada can go in its retaliation, given his past statement to the Star that there is a “limit” on how much it can respond. Carney says it’s not a good idea “to negotiate with yourself,” but reiterates Ottawa “will only take measures that have a maximum impact in the U.S. and a minimum impact here. So that does limit what we can do. Their economy is much bigger than ours. We all know that.”

He repeats that the post-election trade negotiation is important and “we are going to act in a way that sets up that negotiation in the most constructive way to get the best deal for Canadians.”

Carney is asked — as was Pierre Poilievre earlier — if he will respect the result of the election whatever the result, and he reacted with a disbelieving laugh at the question. “I know there’s certain parties that just import all their slogans and their policies from America, but let’s not import that nonsense into Canada. We will have, and we are in the midst of a fair and open and free election in Canada.”

For the record, Poilievre, when asked in Milton if he believes the polls and would respect the result of the election no matter the outcome, said briefly “Yes and that decision will be based on whether, after a lost Liberal decade of rising crime and costs and a falling economy under America’s thumb, we can trust that we can afford a fourth Liberal term, or whether we want change.”

—Tonda MacCharles

11:54 a.m. Trump Tariffs on China now at least 145% as trade war ramps up

President Donald Trump’s tariffs on Chinese imports are now at least 145%.

That includes both a 125% rate that covers “reciprocal” duties as well as levies imposed on China for retaliating against U.S. import taxes, according to a White House memo. It also encompasses a 20% rate imposed by Trump earlier this year over fentanyl trafficking.

The stark US tariffs on the world’s second largest economy follow an escalating tit-for-tat trade war that has unnerved global financial markets.

Read more from Bloomberg News

11:35 a.m. Ford tells CNN Canada prepared to drop tariffs is U.S. drops theirs

Premier Doug Ford tells CNN’s Wolf Blitzer that we’ll drop our tariffs tomorrow if President Trump drops drops the tariffs.” Ford notes Canadian travel to the U.S. has plunged dramatically due to Trump’s moves. “And is that not unfortunate? Two countries, two groups of people that love each other. We need to get through this and start traveling back and forth.”

—Robert Benzie

(Updated) 11:34 a.m. Carney interested in deepening trade ties with EU 

Liberal leader Mark Carney said he spoke Thursday with European Commission Ursula von der Leyen about the EU’s delay on implementing their tariffs, and understands their position because the U.S. paused reciprocal tariffs for 90 days, but said with direct tariffs in effect against Canada, the U.S. “understands” Canada’s position. He said “the adjustment” for CUSMA-compliant Canadian exports is “not complete.”

Carney stressed the “key point” is that Canada and the U.S have agreed to start negotiations on a new trade deal after the election.

Carney said he spoke to Von der Leyen because he is interested in “deepening our trading relationship with the European Union, with the United Kingdom, with like minded partners in Asia.”

The Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre had earlier Thursday stressed the question for voters is whether they want four more years of Liberals in government or whether they want “change.” Carney, however, stressed what the Liberals say is the ballot question. “One of the big questions in this election is, who’s going to protect Canadians, but also who’s going to represent Canada at those negotiations? Who’s going to get the best deals for Canada?”

—Tonda MacCharles

11:29 a.m. Canada won’t halt counter-tariffs, Carney says

Liberal leader Mark Carney, on the election hustings, turned aside warnings by Trump and his commerce secretary Howard Lutnick that retaliatory tariffs against American should be dropped.

Carney said although Trump’s pause on tariffs for most other countries is “a welcome reprieve for the global economy, the impacts of other tariffs and the threat of future tariffs are already being felt around the world and here at home. So the stakes have never been higher for our economy.”

He said Canada would not halt its retaliatory counter-measures against Trump’s tariffs on this country that remain in place. The U.S. tariffs include 25 per cent border tariffs on non-CUSMA compliant goods, on aluminum and steel tariffs, and on autos.

“Those tariffs are threatening our families, our workers and our businesses, and while they have been imposed under different pretenses, they all are unjustified, unwarranted and misguided,” said Carney, “and we are responding with purpose and force.”

Carney said the U.S. tariffs “are not the only American policies that are threatening our economy and our society,” saying that cross-border traffic in firearms and hate online are a threat to “the safety of our communities.”

“Criminals are taking advantage of irresponsible American gun laws and their weak border enforcement to bring illegal guns into Canada. Large American online platforms have become seas of racism, misogyny, anti-semitism, Islamophobia and hate in all its forms, and they’re being used by criminals to harm our children.”

Carney unveiled a suite of measures he said would combat those threats — some of which are new, some of which reiterate past Liberal commitments. And he said after his campaign event, he planned to return to Ottawa to meet with cabinet committee on Canada-U.S. relations and national security to plan next steps.

—Tonda MacCharles

11:25 a.m. Statistics Canada data shows drop in Canadians making return trips from U.S.

OTTAWA—New travel numbers suggest Canadians made fewer return trips from the United States last month compared to the same time last year, with a sharp decline in trips by car.

Statistics Canada says the number of Canadians returning from the U.S. by car was down almost 32 per cent compared to March 2024, the third consecutive month of year-over-year declines.

Observers have suggested the weak loonie and anger over U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade war and annexation comments are helping drive down Canadian cross-border travel.

The agency says Canadian return trips by air from the U.S. were down 13.5 per cent last month compared to March 2024.

Read more from the Canadian Press

11:23 a.m. Utah governor wants tariffs on Canada to end

At Queen’s Park, Utah Governor Spencer Cox, who is leading a trade mission to Canada, tells reporters he wants to see Trump’s tariffs on Canadian products eliminated.

—Robert Benzie

10:47 p.m. Ford to appear on CNN

Premier Doug Ford will be on CNN with Wolf Blitzer at 11:15 a.m. and then meet with reporters at Queen’s Park to discuss Trump’s latest tariff moves.

—Robert Benzie

10:22 a.m. Poilievre slams Trump over ‘mistreatment’ of Canada

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre slammed President Donald Trump at a news conference in Milton for his “historic mistreatment of Canada.”

“I condemn President Trump for keeping the tariffs on Canada all while he offered a 90-day pause on tariffs for dozens of other countries. It remains a mystery why the president treats Canada worse than dozens of other faraway countries who are not America’s best friend.” Poilievre went on to say it happened after his political opponent Mark Carney, the prime minister, “boasted that he made quote ‘progress.’ What progress? There are more tariffs, American tariffs on Canada today than there were” when Carney took office on Mar. 14, said Poilievre.

He said he doesn’t “blame” Carney for Trump’s tariffs, saying that nobody can control Trump, but he condemned Carney for offering a false promise.

“That’s why Carney’s biggest election promise and distraction are empty. He’s telling you to forget about the lost Liberal decade of rising costs, crime, taxes and housing prices because he’s somehow a magical negotiator. But we’re learning that that is not true. He does not control President Trump. No one does. What we do control is what we do here in Canada.”

Poilievre went on to say the Liberals, after a decade in power, cannot be trusted to make the right decisions to allow Canada to confront Trump from a position of strength.

—Tonda MacCharles

9:49 a.m. North America stock markets plunge in early trading

Stock markets in North America plunged in early trading Thursday as traders continue to digest the impact of the growing U.S. trade war with China, and as tensions cooled down with Europe.

In Toronto, the TSX Composite Index tumbled 2.4 per cent by 9:35 a.m.

In New York, the S&P500 was 2.1 per cent, the Dow Jones industrial average was 1.7 per cent and the tech-heavy NASDAQ was off 2.7 per cent.

Overnight in Asia, markets were up, despite Trump’s decision to ramp up the trade war with China.

The Shanghai Composite Index was up 1.2 per cent, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index was up 2 per cent. Japan’s Nikkei 225 soared, and closed trading up 9.1 per cent.

Read more from the Star’s Josh Rubin

9:20 a.m. The EU to put tariffs on hold for 90 days to match Trump’s pause

The European Union’s executive commission said Thursday it will put its retaliatory measures against new U.S. tariffs on hold for 90 days to match President Donald Trump ’s pause on his sweeping new tariffs and leave room for a negotiated solution.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told reporters on Wednesday that the pause was not a result of the brutal sell-offs in the financial markets but rather because other countries are seeking negotiations. Trump later told reporters that he pulled back on many tariffs because people were getting “yippy” and “afraid.”

Read more from the Associated Press

9 a.m. TC Energy CEO says Canada can become top LNG supplier to Asia

The chief executive of pipeline operator TC Energy says he believes Canada can be the No. 1 exporter of liquefied natural gas to Asia, but political leadership is crucial to making it happen.

“We have the supply, we have a transportation cost advantage and the demand is there for the taking,” François Poirier said in a speech Thursday to Canadian Club Toronto.

“Our leaders need to unite on this ambition — and show the world that Canada is back in business.”

Liquefied natural gas, or LNG, is gas that has been chilled into a liquid state, enabling it to be transported overseas in specialized tankers. Gas produced in Western Canada could sell for a much higher price in Asia than if it were to remain landlocked, and securing new buyers would reduce Canada’s reliance on the United States.

Read more from the Canadian Press

7:56 a.m. Futures point to losses for U.S. stocks when trading starts after big rally

The futures market is pointing to losses for U.S. stock markets when trading begins today.

Canadian and U.S. stock markets rallied on Wednesday to post big gains after U.S. President Donald Trump paused his so-called “reciprocal” tariffs for 90 days but kept in place a 10 per cent levy on nearly all global imports.

Trump also increased tariffs on Chinese imports to 125 per cent.

For its part, China has imposed an 84 per cent tariff on incoming U.S. goods.

The weakness in the futures market came as European and Asian markets climbed higher following the latest U.S. tariff changes, which came Wednesday afternoon.

Read more from the Canadian Press

7:50 a.m. Is now a good time to buy an iPhone? U.S. trade war on China raises fears of increased prices

With the continued escalation of tariffs in the international trade war and the U.S. slapping increasing tariffs on imported Chinese goods, what does that mean for North American shoppers buying electronics like iPhones — items mostly manufactured overseas?

The Star spoke with an international trade expert to learn how and if consumers could be hit.

As it stands, the U.S. market is in a precarious position, said international trade expert and business professor at Ivey Business School, Andreas Schotter.

It’s worth noting, said Schotter, that Apple has been facing pressure on margins due to rising manufacturing costs, and “these tariffs could be the tipping point that leads to higher prices for consumers.”

Read more from the Star’s Reagan McSwain

7:45 a.m.Trump tariff ‘whiplash’ draws pandemic parallels as Canadian businesses scramble

Todd Rutter calls himself the “most non-tech person you’ve ever met” but he’s turning to technology and lessons learned during the COVID-19 pandemic to help weather the dizzying tariff policies of U.S. President Donald Trump.

The Edmonton-based co-owner of A Cappella Catering Co. said inflated food costs as pandemic restrictions started lifting years ago nearly killed his 35-year-old company, and he has to do everything he can to prevent the roller-coaster of changing U.S. tariff threats from doing it this time.

The company has created a spreadsheet to track the cost of the 100 most common ingredients they use in case there’s a need to implement a “tariff surcharge” on customers to keep the business afloat, he said.

Read more from the Canadian Press

Canada spared from new Trump tariffs — but U.S.-China tariff war could ‘collapse’ global trade

At midnight Wednesday, Trump’s “reciprocal” tariffs kicked in on dozens of countries, including China, which was hit with a 104 per cent tariff on all its exports to the U.S. 

China announced Wednesday that it was responding in kind, levying an 84 per cent tariff on all imports from the U.S.

By midday, while most other countries were given a 90-day reprieve, the Trump administration further raised tariffs on Chinese goods to 125 per cent  in a tit-for-tat move, effective immediately.

Read the full report from the Star's Ana Pereira.

North American stock markets rallied after Trump paused most global tariffs

In Toronto, the S&P TSX composite index bounced back and forth between loss and gain in early trading, but took off as soon as news of the pause became public shortly after 1 p.m. By market close its was up 5.4 per cent adding roughly $200 billion in value.

Stocks in New York were also mixed at the opening, then took off like a rocket in the early afternoon. By the time markets closed, the broad-based S&P 500 was up 9.5 per cent, the Dow Jones industrial average 7.9 per cent, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq 12.6 per cent.

Read the full story from the Star’s Josh Rubin.

Trump’s tariff pause was a direct response to pressures from the market: expert

It’s no coincidence the decision to pause the tariffs — reminiscent of earlier on-and-off tariffs against Canada and Mexico — came after several days of crashing markets, argued Saurin Patel, a finance professor at Western University’s Ivey Business School.

“I think it was a direct response to pressure from the markets and the public at large,” said Patel, who warned that markets could shift again just as quickly in the other direction. “This is a bizarre way of doing business, and it’s not the way you should be running a large economy.”

The pause, first announced by Trump on Truth Social, also comes after pressure from business executives and billionaire donors, said Paul Calluzzo, a finance professor at Queen’s University’s Smith School of Business.