Without any schadenfreude, a spade needs to be called a spade. Markets spoke, bonds the loudest, and it led to a capitulation in its purest possible form, a partial one, anyway, regardless of how it has been spun and sold. And yet, in this tacit admission of miscalculation, the message was characteristically vague and confusing.
It has been a week now since Liberation Day. The ensuing Liquidation Days have wrought havoc throughout the world. Financial markets are devastated.
There is something of ship steadying in the roiling seas of market activity this morning. The fact market participants are looking for any port in the storm came yesterday with a rumour in which the White House was considering a ninety-day pause in tariffs. Markets were quick to rally, but eventually quelled, being cast as “fake news” and the President insisting “we are not looking at that”.
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