4 April 2025, 19:01 | Updated: 4 April 2025, 20:22
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Stocks markets around the world plunged to new lows on Friday, with London’s FTSE 100 suffering the worst day losses seen in five years following Trump’s tariffs announcement.
Market turmoil saw the FTSE 100 – an index of the 100 most highly biggest companies listed on the London Stock Exchange – undergo the biggest single-day fall since March 2020.
The global financial shock comes in the wake of Trump’s sweeping ‘Liberation Day‘ tariffs, which saw levies upwards of 10 per cent applied to international imports entering the US.
The plummeting index follows huge losses for both the US’s S&P 500 and Dow Jones, both of which saw steep drops on Thursday.
By the end of the day on Friday, just one company had made gains and the index had plummeted by 419.75 points, or 4.95%, to close at 8,054.98.
This meant it suffered the biggest single-day decline since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic in March 2020.
On Friday, a Treasury minister said the Government is “negotiating intensively” and “at pace” to secure a deal with the US.
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Alamy
David Lammy said he regretted the “return to protectionism” in the US and that Britons would be “very concerned” about how tariffs affect their finances.
The Foreign Secretary told reporters: “The United Kingdom, like France, is a great maritime nation.
“We are a nation that believes in open trade, and I regret the return to protectionism in the United States, something that we’ve not seen for nearly a century.
“As you know, we are consulting with business and industry. At this time, we are engaged in discussions with the United States to strike an economic agreement and an economic deal.”
Defence and engineering giant Rolls-Royce saw losses of more than a 10th, while shares in miners Antofagasta, Glencore, Fresnillo, and Anglo American dropped by more than 8%.
Banks were also seeing significant losses with the likes of Barclays and NatWest closing about 8% lower.
Losses extended in Europe on Friday, with Germany’s Dax closing 4.95% lower, and France’s Cac 40 dropping 4.26%. In New York, stocks were plunging to new lows, with the S&P 500 down by about 4.7% by the time European markets closed.
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Alamy
This took it to its lowest level since May last year. The Dow Jones and Nasdaq indexes were also both down about 3.9%.
The pound was also dropping sharply against key currencies. Sterling had declined 1.5% against the US dollar, at 1.2905, and was down 0.8% against the euro, at 1.1755.
Asked why the Government was consulting on possible retaliatory action given most economists say it would lead to a bigger hit to the economy, exchequer secretary to the Treasury James Murray told Sky News: “We’ve been negotiating intensively to secure a deal since the Prime Minister went to Washington earlier this year and we’re continuing those negotiations at pace to secure a deal now.
“Obviously we’re engaging with businesses, we have been throughout this process.
“The next stage of engagement is to ask their input about what possible measures would look like in terms of the UK response, because we want to involve businesses in that decision, and we need to be clear that we keep all options on the table… we reserve the right to retaliate, but we want a deal, and our full focus is on that.”
