Red or Green? Trump's Tariffs Leave Markets Disoriented

Red, red, and more red. This could have been the headline that characterized the markets on Monday, due to the tariffs announced by US President Donald Trump over the weekend, which included a 30% tariff on the European Union starting August 1st.

But that wasn't the story in the markets. Major European stock markets saw recoveries, with Spanish and Italian indices managing to move from red to green between the start and end of the session, helping mitigate the losses experienced throughout the day in Europe. Wall Street started the day in the red and ended the session in the green.

Despite this good news, the Portuguese stock market failed to recover from its early losses. The PSI closed in the red, down 0.25% to 7,707.65 points.

The biggest drops were for CTT, which fell 1.76% to 7.80 euros, followed by Galp Energia, which slipped 0.94% to 16.30 euros, and NOS, which fell 0.92% to 3.79 euros.

Mota-Engil, Navigator, Ibersol, Sonae, EDP Renováveis, Altri, and Jerónimo Martins were also in the red.

Trading in the green were REN, which rose 0.49% to 3.09 euros, followed by Banco Comercial Português (BCP), which appreciated 0.33% to 0.66 euros, and Corticeira Amorim, which rose 0.25% to eight euros.

EDP was still in the green.

On the main European stock exchanges between the start and end of the session, sentiment shifted from red to mixed. The DAX (Germany) fell 0.28%, the CAC 40 (France) fell 0.27%, and the FTSE 100 (United Kingdom) rose 0.65%. The AEX (Netherlands) fell 0.11%, the IBEX 35 (Spain) rose 0.30%, and the FTSE MIB (Italy) rose 0.29%.

On Wall Street, things started off in the red. The S&P 500 fell 0.15%, the Nasdaq fell 0.13%, and the Dow Jones dropped 0.11%.

During the Big Tech session, Apple fell as much as 1.28%. In the semiconductor sector, AMD (-1.63%) and Qualcomm (-1.82%) fell. Energy companies also felt the impact of the declines, with Exxon Mobil at one point falling 1.59% and Chevron falling 1.69%.

However, some stocks saw gains during the Wall Street session. These included listed companies such as Netflix (1.55%), Palantir (2.2%), Airbnb (1.94%), and technology company Fortinet (3.46%). In the aerospace and defense sector, Axon (2.61%) and Howmet (2.43%) gained significantly. PayPal gained 3.76% during the session.

At the end of the day, Wall Street ended the session with the S&P 500 rising 0.14%, the Nasdaq appreciating 0.27%, and the Dow Jones rising 0.20%.

In the commodities market, oil went from green to red. At the close of European markets, Brent crude fell 1.32% to $69.43, and crude oil fell 1.59% to $67.36.

On the foreign exchange market, the euro appreciated 0.01% against the dollar, to 1.16954 dollars and the euro rose 0.29% against the pound, to 0.86905 pounds.

Bitcoin was an asset that traded in the green, even reaching a new high, as highlighted by BA&N, of $120,000. At the close of European markets, the cryptocurrency was up 0.70% to $119,813.80. It should be noted that last week, Bitcoin had reached new highs , trading above $117,000.

Research warns of uncertainty until August

BA&N research highlighted that despite the United States announcing a 30% tariff on the European Union, the US leader "left the door open to lower tariffs and European officials remain confident in the negotiations," meaning "uncertainty is expected to persist" until the new deadline of August 1.