In today’s The Telegraph business section (Feb 23), one prominent headline screamed: “Britain is biggest loser from Trump’s new tariffs”.
Last week, the Trump administration was dealt a significant blow after the US Supreme Court rejected its Liberation Day tariff plan. Not backing down, the US president immediately raised the global baseline tariff rate from 10% to 15%.
What happens now? Nobody knows for sure. Negotiations are frantically re-opened in a bid to conclude new trade deals.
Gold naturally rebounded in this atmosphere of renewed suspense; while the US dollar dropped.
In the UK, the FTSE 100 Index was surprisingly steady despite the negative tariff headline.
Chartwise, the UK blue-chip index is on a firm uptrend, following the massive breakout at 10,000.
Carrying the large-cap equity index higher were:
– miners (due to the boom in gold, silver and copper)
– banks (‘Big Four’ 2025 FY profits around £45 billion)
– pharmaceuticals
In particular, GSK’s (ticker:GSK) massive breakout at 1,800p is its strongest rally in decades. Strong price momentum may to push the healthcare stock to new all-time highs. AstraZeneca (AZN) is already sitting near record highs.
But while many FTSE 100 stocks are cruising nicely upwards, renewed tariff uncertainty is likely to cast a long shadow on global financial markets.
Will the administration intensify its negotiation position? Few can predict with certainty what the next step will entail.
Therefore, even though FTSE100’s chart dictates that investors should stay long here, we should not discount the potential of some turbulence ahead; leading to a modest reversion to its medium-term mean (at around 10,200, where the 50-day moving average is currently sitting).
