AP Photo/Alex Brandon

Donald J. Trump has learned, and we will get wealthier as a result

Peter Switzer
13 May 2025

Today investors will get wealthier, and you can thank Donald Trump.

Trump, plus the hardball players in Beijing; the uncompromising work of the bond market; a crashing stock market, and those who wanted to give good sense a chance.

The US President was taught an expensive lesson on April 2. What he called Liberation Day might be remembered as a School Day for the former Apprentice host.

In a way, President Trump showed on April 2 that – despite being on his second term in the White House - he was still an apprentice himself when it came to global economics.

His misguided tariff plan seems to have taught him at least that if you want to commit to going full tilt on the markets, the markets – including bonds, stocks and more - will go full tilt right back.

Thankfully, better sense now seems to be prevailing, and we learnt overnight that the smarter guys of Washington and Beijing have agreed to a 90-day pause on tit-for-tat tariffs. That gives these testy trading partners time to work out a better trading relationship. Specifically, the US will cut its tariffs on Chinese goods from 145% down to 30% for 90 days, and China will cut its tariffs from 125% down to a paltry 10% for the same period.

As a consequence, the Dow was up over 1000 points or 2.6%, and our market was tipped to start trading 83 points higher at the open. Get ready to see your stocks and super tick up on Tuesday.

Kilburg of KKM Financial explained that markets are set to do well thanks to the speed of the deal so far: “Markets are rallying because investors are surprised with the velocity of the Chinese trade tariff deal progress.”

This is a win for the ongoing education of Donald Trump as a President who now has progressed from his Learner “L” plates to his Provisional “P” plates.

But we shouldn’t pop the good champagne just yet, as Jeff Buchbinder, Chief Equity Strategist at LPL Financial explains:

“No one had these low China tariff rates on their bingo cards. This is a big positive surprise,” he said. “This is de-escalation, not a trade deal. More work remains to be done. A pause isn’t permanent. China just got the same deal as all other countries.”

Markets live in hope that this de-escalation of the trade war leads to wiser and more sensible trade deals. If more of these stop-gap agreements happen, stocks will rebound higher and one big headwind will be taken away for share markets.

Markets will still have to deal with the economic slowdown effects of higher tariffs worldwide and the likelihood that tariffs will not be great for inflation-killing.

Ultimately this could reduce the number of interest rate cuts going forward, but as this market reaction shows, Donald Trump is like a student who once was looking at an F, but now is heading for a C.

Must try harder, Donald.

Comments
Get the latest financial, business, and political expert commentary delivered to your inbox.

When you sign up, we will never give away or sell or barter or trade your email address.

And you can unsubscribe at any time!
Subscribe
© 2006-2021 Switzer. All Rights Reserved. Australian Financial Services Licence Number 286531. 
shopping-cartphoneenvelopedollargraduation-cap linkedin facebook pinterest youtube rss twitter instagram facebook-blank rss-blank linkedin-blank pinterest youtube twitter instagram