Trump Signs Tariff Talk into Tariff Thought, With Plans to Think More Later

President Trump ordered his administration to consider reciprocal tariffs Thursday, in an official mandate of a long-promised campaign goal. According to Bloomberg, Howard Lutnick, Trump's nominee for the Commerce Department, has until April 1st as the deadline to study how to rebalance levies and trade relations.

The market did not waver much on the news after Trump said he would decide on more tariffs for important goods like cars, pharmaceuticals, and computer chips at a later date. Trump focused his tariff war blow on value-added taxes, where countries raise taxes at each stage of production.

Indices were up, with the S&P 500 gaining 57 points, or 0.95%.

Trump's decision not to set tariffs right away might be a sign he is starting negotiations with a softer blow than with his Canada and Mexico tariffs, according to Bloomberg.