The S&P 500 (SPX) opened the Friday trading session in the red after President Trump floated the idea of imposing a new U.S. blanket tariff rate of 15% or 20%, up from the current 10%.
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“We’re just going to say all of the remaining countries are going to pay, whether it’s 20% or 15%,” said Trump in an interview with NBC. “We’ll work that out now.” Trump added that the current tariffs were “well-received” given the recent highs in the stock market.
Trump Says Tariffs Haven’t Increased Inflation
Trump also said that inflation has cooled since he began increasing tariffs. The latest data shows that inflation increased by 2.4% year-over-year in May, which is still above the Fed’s target of 2.0%.
Trump has now issued a total of 23 letters to countries informing them of their updated tariff rates. On Thursday, Canada became the latest country to receive a letter with a rate of 35% compared to its April 2 reciprocal tariff level of 25%.
The S&P 500 is down by 0.67% at the time of writing.
