Trump tariffs live updates: Markets shaken as global trade tensions escalate-OxBig News Network

Citing a “changing economy” and its position as the the No. 1 U.S. producer of cars and trucks, Ford said it’s putting most of its vehicles on sale.

The automaker is offering employee pricing to all U.S. customers from April 3 to June 2.

The promotion excludes the some large vehicles like the Ford Raptor, the 2025 Expedition and Navigator SUVs and Super Duty trucks.

“We understand that these are uncertain times for many Americans,” the company said in a statement. “We have the retail inventory to do this and a lot of choice for customers that need a vehicle.”

U.S. auto sales in the first quarter came in higher than expected as consumers flocked to buy cars ahead of auto tariffs taking effect, which many expect will lead to higher vehicle prices.

— Michele Luhn

The White House Wednesday listed tariff rates for 180 countries that, in most cases, were roughly half of what the Trump administration claims each country has “charged” the U.S.

It didn’t take long for market observers to try and reverse engineer the formula — to confusing results.

Many observers said the U.S. appeared to have divided the trade deficit by imports from a given country to arrive at tariff rates for individual countries.

Such methodology doesn’t necessarily align with the conventional approach to calculate tariffs and would imply the U.S. would have only looked at the trade deficit in goods and ignored trade in services.

The U.S. also appeared to have applied a 10% levy for regions where it is running a trade surplus.

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative has since laid out its approach, including a formula, on its website which appeared somewhat similar to the online chatter, barring a few differences.

Read the full story here.

— Neelabh Chaturvedi, Asriel Chua

Trump quickly declared his “reciprocal” tariff rollout a success.

“THE OPERATION IS OVER!” Trump wrote in an all-caps Truth Social post.

“THE PATIENT LIVED, AND IS HEALING. THE PROGNOSIS IS THAT THE PATIENT WILL BE FAR STRONGER, BIGGER, BETTER, AND MORE RESILIENT THAN EVER BEFORE. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!”

The new tariffs have not yet taken effect.

— Kevin Breuninger

Trump’s 25% auto tariffs are in effect, but the impacts of the new levies could take years to unfold.

The tariffs are on any vehicles imported into the U.S., but even if final assembly takes place domestically, autos are made up of thousands of parts that are sourced from all around the world.

That means the industry is watching and waiting to see what happens with potential upcoming tariffs on auto parts.

In the near term, auto industry investors should expect continued volatility in automaker and supplier stocks, according to Wall Street analysts.

Read more about how the auto tariffs will affect individual vehicles and automakers here.

— Michele Luhn