ORLANDO, Florida, April 10 (Reuters) - TRADING DAY

Making sense of the forces driving global markets

By Jamie McGeever, Markets Columnist

Desperately seeking safety

After Wall Street clocked one of its best days in history on

Wednesday, a sense of sober realism was always likely to return

on Thursday. But few would have anticipated such a sudden,

screeching reversal in sentiment.

Stocks sank and demand for 'safe-haven' assets exploded -

gold leaped 3% to a new high and the Swiss franc had one of its

best days ever. Maybe U.S. President Donald Trump's tariff truce

on Wednesday wasn't as conciliatory as it first seemed.

More on that below, but first, a round-up of the main market

moves on another extraordinary day. I'd love to hear from you,

so please reach out to me with comments at . You can also follow

me at @ReutersJamie and @reutersjamie.bsky.social.

If you have more time to read today, here are a few articles

I recommend to help you make sense of what happened in markets.

1. Tariffs caused US Treasury market dislocations,

raising

longer term concerns

2. Global investors hunker down for volatility even

as

tariff pause is welcomed

3. Trump tariff pause does not change fundamentals

for a

Fed that sees risks ahead

4. Wall Street's week of whiplash brought fear,

relief and

caution

5. Safe European home? Scared money seeks German

bunds

Today's Key Market Moves

* The S&P 500 tumbles 3.5%, the Nasdaq 4.3% and the Dow

2.5%.

* All 10 sectors in the S&P 500 decline, led by a 6.4% slide

in

energy.

* The euro hits a near two-year high of $1.1241, rising more

than

2% for its best day since December 2015.

* The Swiss franc rallies 4% to a 10-year high, its biggest

gain

since January 2015, ranking among its top 10 best days ever.

* Gold leaps 3% to a new high of $3,176/oz.

* U.S. Treasuries rally at the short end of the curve,

pushing

yields down as much as 15 basis points. But the long end sells

off.

* A $22 billion auction of 30-year Treasuries draws solid

demand,

but the yield rises again and is eyeing its biggest weekly rise

- 46 bps - since 1982.

* Oil slides nearly 4% as investors reassess the

global

demand outlook.

* Japanese stock futures point to a 4% fall at the open on

Friday,

reversing much of Thursday's 9% rise.

* Bitcoin falls 4%.

* China's 'CNH' offshore yuan strengthens but overall

pressure on

the Chinese currency is still to the downside. The onshore yuan

is at a key level around 7.35 per dollar.

Market nurses hangover as harsh tariff reality sets in

The relief from Trump's tariff climb-down was visceral, but

fleeting. Global trade tensions may have cooled a bit, but the

outlook for consumers, businesses and investors is as murky as

it was before Trump's surprise Truth Social post on Wednesday.

Whatever concessions he offered to the rest of the world

were essentially offset by the extra duties slapped on imports

from China. The world's two economic superpowers are locked in a

full-scale trade war, a confrontation with no winners.

Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, in her first

broadcast interview since leaving office, told CNN International

that the likelihood of a U.S. recession has risen, and slammed

Trump's tariffs as a terrible "self-inflicted wound".

In financial market terms, the big losers on Thursday were

assets leveraged to growth and risk appetite like stocks, oil

and bitcoin. The big winners were safe-haven plays like the

Swiss franc and gold.

The franc's 4% rally against the dollar was stunning. Not

only is that its biggest rise since the Swiss National Bank

scrapped the franc's cap in January 2015, it's among the top 10

since the era of free-floating exchange rates was introduced

more than 50 years ago.

The euro rallied sharply too and German government bonds

outperformed U.S. Treasuries, suggesting investors switching out

of U.S. assets may be turning to Europe. There's a case to be

made for it - there are few sufficiently liquid alternatives.

Economic data and commentary from central bank officials are

playing second fiddle to trade issues for investors right now,

evidenced by figures on Thursday that showed a surprising fall

in U.S. inflation in March. Treasury yields fell a bit, but not

across the whole curve and not as much as one might expect with

Wall Street falling so steeply.

A solid 30-year bond auction - demand for the $22 billion

sale was the strongest since November - failed to prevent

long-dated yields from rising. Just as tariff fears haven't

dissipated, nor have concerns over the long end of the U.S.

Treasury curve.

U.S. still facing 1930s tariff shock, vice tightens around China

With the dust now settled on the euphoric market rebound

following President Donald Trump's trade war climb-down,

investors are realizing that the global economy still faces the

most punishing U.S. tariffs in nearly 100 years.

The picture is marginally brighter than it was before Trump

blinked at 1:18 p.m. Eastern Time on Wednesday and announced a

90-day hiatus and a reduction to 10% for most of his

'reciprocal' tariffs. Washington is now pursuing negotiations

with its trading partners and most retaliatory measures have

been put on ice.

But the big picture remains pretty dim.

Analysis published by the non-partisan Budget Lab at Yale on

Thursday suggests U.S. consumers will face an overall average

effective tariff rate of 25.3%, only "slightly different" from

before Trump's pullback, and the highest since 1909. Even

accounting for likely consumption shifts away from Chinese goods

the average tariff rate will be 18.1%, the highest since 1934.

"It's clear the U.S. economy hasn't seen a shock like this

since the 1920s and 1930s," PIMCO economist Tiffany Wilding

wrote on Thursday.

She estimates that every percentage point increase in the

average effective tariff rate shaves about 0.1 ppt off U.S.

growth and adds a similar amount to inflation. She says U.S.

recession is now likely, as is core inflation surging to 4.5%.

That's a dismal picture.

TIGHTENING GRIP

By some measures, the trade war's vice-like grip on the

global economy has tightened, particularly because of the pain

being inflicted on China.

Essentially, any semblance of a truce in Trump's broad trade

war is being offset by the ratcheting up of tensions with China.

Levies on Chinese goods are now an eye-popping 145%, the White

House on Thursday.

As Pictet Wealth Management's Frederik Ducrozet notes, the

global trade war narrowed on Wednesday, but it also deepened. A

"full decoupling" between the U.S. and China, the world's two

largest economies, is playing out in front of our eyes.

Little wonder that China's stock market significantly lagged

its regional and global peers on Thursday, although eking out a

1.3% rise was an achievement given the increasingly alarming

U.S.-China standoff.

TD Securities strategist James Rossiter calculates that the

import-weighted average U.S. tariff has actually risen to 26.2%

from 23.9% on April 2, Trump's 'Liberation Day'. Of course, if

U.S.-China trade collapses, as could happen if neither

Washington or Beijing backs down, the average effective rate

will be closer to the global 10%.

But freezing the two-way flow of nearly $600 billion in

annual trade isn't exactly bullish, as investors realize - in

U.S. trading hours on Thursday stocks plunged again, and

'safe-havens' like the Swiss franc, gold and short-dated

Treasuries surged.

CUE THE YUAN DEVAL?

So what are China's options? Policymakers in Beijing were

already facing an unenviable domestic situation - a real estate

crash, deflation and moribund demand and investment - and

Trump's belligerence can only make that more difficult.

If the economic battle lines between the world's two

economic superpowers are being marked by tariffs, the market

battle lines are being drawn by the dollar/yuan exchange rate.

In bright Technicolor, too.

It's hard to envisage how China withstands or fights back

against such punitive tariffs without a significant depreciation

of its tightly controlled yuan, or perhaps a much bigger

devaluation.

The currency market is leaning heavily that way: onshore

spot dollar/yuan is a whisker from levels last seen in December

2007; Thursday's central bank dollar/yuan fixing of 7.2092 yuan

was the highest since September 2023; the offshore 'CNH'

dollar/yuan rate touched a record peak of 7.4287 on Tuesday.

Economists at Goldman Sachs on Thursday slashed their

Chinese GDP growth forecasts to 4.0% this year and 3.5% next

year from 4.5% and 4.0%, respectively. They also said that they

expect "significant" monetary and fiscal policy easing from

Beijing.

No matter who blinks first in the coming months - Trump or

President Xi Jinping - the rest of the global economy probably

won't like what it sees.

What could move markets tomorrow?

* ECB President Christine Lagarde holds press conference at

Eurogroup meeting

* U.S. producer price inflation (March)

* U.S. University of Michigan inflation expectations (April)

* U.S. Fed policymakers Susan Collins, Alberto Musalem and

John

Williams speak at separate events

Opinions expressed are those of the author. They do not

reflect the views of Reuters News, which, under the Trust

Principles, is committed to integrity, independence, and freedom

from bias.

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