US stocks react to misreported tariff pause; White House issues denial

KARACHI: The White House on Monday swiftly denied speculation that US President Donald Trump was considering a 90-day pause on tariffs, following a sharp and short-lived rally in US stock markets driven by the rumour, according to several reports in foreign media. The confusion appeared to originate from comments made by Kevin Hassett, a senior economic adviser, during a Fox News interview. When asked whether the administration would consider pausing tariffs, Hassett offered a vague response, saying, “The president is going to decide what the president is going to decide. There are more than 50 countries in negotiation with the president… I would urge everyone, especially Bill [Ackman], to ease up the rhetoric a little bit. ” Hassett added: “Even if you think that there will be some negative effect from the trade side, that’s still a small share of the GDP. This idea that it’s gonna be a nuclear winter or something like that is completely irresponsible. ” Shortly after, verified X (formerly Twitter) user Walter Bloomberg mischaracterised Hassett’s remarks as confirmation that the administration was planning a 90-day pause on tariffs for all countries except China. The report was picked up by CNBC, triggering a rapid market rally, with some indexes jumping as much as 7-10 per cent -- the first significant gains in days. The momentum quickly reversed once the White House issued a statement labelling the claim as “fake news”. Officials said there were no plans for a tariff pause and reaffirmed the administration’s current trade stance. According to CNBC, Trump himself posted on social media

a video of Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo saying, “Rates are plummeting, oil prices are plummeting, deregulation is happening. ” “President Trump is not going to bend,” Bartiromo said in the video. The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq gained slightly on Monday but trade was volatile as investors worried about an economic slowdown and rising inflation as US President Donald Trump dug his heels in on tariffs, warning that he could further increase levies on China, Reuters reported. Wall Street equities have been hammered since Trump’s sweeping tariffs, announced late Wednesday, on all imports into the US and much higher levies on some major trading partners. Early on Monday, all three major US indexes touched their lowest levels in more than a year, and the CBOE Volatility index breached 60 points, which was its highest level since August 2024. In the afternoon, the volatility index, seen as Wall Street’s fear gauge, was at 46. 35 points. “On a constructive note, we’re still off of the early morning lows,” said Michael James, managing director of equity trading at Rosenblatt Securities. “But without any improvement in the tariff situation, which is the dominant focus of everyone’s attention, it’s going to be hard to expect that there will be much meaningful upside, outside of a potential over-sold bounce. ” At 2:15pm the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 237. 8 points, or 0. 62 per cent, to 38,077. 06, the S&P 500 gained 7. 02 points, or 0. 14 per cent, to 5,081. 1 and the Nasdaq Composite gained 75. 37 points, or 0. 48 per cent, to 15,663. 15