In finance, both the local sharemarket and the Aussie dollar bounced back today after President Trump paused tariffs on Mexico and Canada. Alan Kohler has the latest.
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00:00Well, the US dollar is almost back to where it was before Donald Trump said he would do
00:05the tariffs that he said he'd do, which nobody thought he would do and now isn't doing, although
00:11he still might do them.
00:13As a result, the Australian dollar is almost back to where it was before all that happened.
00:17What has definitely happened is a sharp increase in the Global Economic Policy Uncertainty
00:21Index, taking it close to where it was when COVID struck in 2020.
00:27The tariffs that are still hanging over Mexico, Canada and China would take American tariffs
00:31halfway towards what he promised in the campaign, which would be above the level of the Smoot-Hawley
00:37tariff that helped cause the Great Depression of 1930.
00:40And the real reason for it, as well as migrants and fentanyl, are the trade deficits.
00:46Mr Trump regards these as losing money, rather than buying stuff.
00:50And note that Mr Trump is also threatening Europe with tariffs, along with China, Mexico
00:54and Canada.
00:55And what about us?
00:57Well, the Trumpian view is that we're losing more than $18 billion a year to the US, and
01:02he's making that from us.
01:04So we should be right.
01:06Share markets in the US, Canada and Mexico all fell, as expected, but not much.
01:10And they'll rise tomorrow for sure.
01:12The Australian market closed slightly higher, with gains by mining and technology stocks,
01:16falls by banks and retailers.
01:19On commodity markets, iron ore and oil fell, gold and copper went up.
01:24In other news, the official Trump crypto token has dropped 36% in a week and is down
01:3074% from its peak just before Inauguration Day.
01:35Watch that space.
01:37And that's finance.