US President Donald Trump talks with reporters as White House secretary Caroline Leavitt stands next to him aboard the Air Force one in his return to Washington, DC, SH.BA, March 9, 2025.
Kevin Lamarque | Reuters
President Donald Trump has rejected the growing corner of CEO, investors and policymakers praying with the White House for greater clarity about his fee agenda.
“They always say that.” We want clarity, “Trump said in a Fox News interview that broadcast Sunday.
“They have a lot of clarity,” the president told Sunday Morning Futures Host Maria Bartiromo.
Complaints in the White House by the business community to provide more concrete instructions, Trump said, are slightly more than speech points. “They just use it – as almost a sound bite.”
Printed by Bartiromo if there were “clarity for the business community”, Trump’s response was telling.
“I think so, but you know, fees can grow over time, and they can go up, and you know, I don’t know if it’s predictability.”
Bartiromo intervened: “This is not clarity.”
A few hours after the full interview was broadcasting, the beginning of a new week of fears driven by tariffs and economic uncertainty sent a future on Sunday evening.
The shares were decided to fall further when the markets opened on Monday. The future associated with the industrial average of Dow Jones decreased nearly 500 points, or 1.2%, on Monday morning, while S&P 500 futures fell 1.4%and nasdaq 100 futures fell 1.6%.
The comments caught a week marked by unpredictability for Trump’s tariffs and the broader force of the US economy.
S&P 500 Ra 3.10%, for its worst weekly sign since September. Dow fell 2.37%, while the composition nasdaq poured 3.45%.
At the center of the storm were Trump’s 25% solid tariffs for imports from Canada and Mexico, which initially stopped for a month, then resumed on Tuesday, just to reopen on Wednesday and then partially stopped for another Thursday.
Meanwhile, Trump and numerous officials in his administration warned that Americans could be in the store for some economic strains – including higher prices. But they insisted that any negative impact would be temporary.
Confusion about the constantly changing trade plans Trump has left the investors unsafe about what is coming next.
While Trump has minimized the impact of his unpredictable trade policies on domestic markets, Wall Street analysts do not have.
“We still have no clarity of the economy moving forward with Trump’s riots,” wrote Byron Anderson, head of fixed income at Laffer Tengler Investments.
“The longer we have chaos and riots from Trump, the higher the probability of eventually having a negative data trend,” he wrote in a Friday note.
The White House did not respond to a comment request on Trump’s recent remarks about his fees, or for the widespread confusion surrounding his agenda.
Next week promises a lot of new economic data to prove competitive theories.
Due to Monday is the consumer expectations of the consumer in the New York Fed, followed by Wednesday’s release of the February consumer prices.
Thursday will see a new set of manufacturer price data before finishing the week with a reading of the Michigan University’s consumer’s sense of Friday.
Now, while the Trump administration begins a monthly reassessment of America’s trade relations around the world, the negative impacts of uncertainty, felt in recent weeks, can be magnified.
“Markets are afraid of uncertainty more than they are afraid of bad news,” wrote Mark Malek, the Chief of Investment in Siebert Financial. “25% tariffs are easier to appreciate than ‘maybe 10%, maybe more, maybe less.” “
It is not just the companies and investors that need more clarity before making major decisions.
Federal reserve also does.
Mayor Jerome Powell said on Friday that the Central Bank is “well positioned to wait for greater clarity” while the Trump administration implements “significant policy changes in four separate areas: trade, immigration, fiscal policy and regulation”.
Speaking at the US Monetary Policy Forum, Powell said it would be “the net effect of these policies changes that will matter to the economy and the path of monetary policy”.
For now, he said, “the uncertainty about the changes and their possible effects remains high.”
The Fed, like many others, is “focused on separating the signal from noise while the perspective evolves,” he added.
– Jesse Pound of CNBC contributed to reporting.