President Donald Trump is pausing tariffs for some countries, but imposing more on China.
As the president made this announcement, stocks on the Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq skyrocketed Wednesday afternoon, per Fox Business.
According to the Associated Press, the stock market had one of biggest gains since World War II.
The S&P 500 gained 9.5%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped about 3,000 points. Nasdaq composite went up 12.2%.
The surge came as Trump announced he will pause the tariff hike for those willing to negotiate.
The pause will last for 90 days, per a report on NPR.
However, tariffs for China will go up to 125%, effective immediately.
Watch:
“It took great courage — great courage — for him [Trump] to stay the course until this moment,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said, adding China was the “biggest source” of trade issues for the United States.
“I’m not calling it a trade war, but I’m saying that China has escalated, and President Trump responded very courageously to that, and we are going to work on a solution with the our trading partners,” Bessent said.
Bessent said the pause was to negotiate with the countries willing to do so.
“It is going to take some time, and President Trump wants to be personally involved. So that’s why we’re getting the 90-day pause,” he said.
Some of the issues at hand in negotiations are liquefied natural gas (LNG) deals, non-tariff trade barriers, currency policies and subsidies,
Bessent said.
“These are complicated negotiations. These are imbalances that have taken decades to create,” he said.
