Trump's tariffs send markets reeling, amid trade war and recession fears

global markets amid worries the aggressive duties will slow growth, hit corporate earnings and stoke inflation, with one analyst calling the move markets' «worst-case scenario.»

Global markets have been whiplashed since Trump took office and kept up a stream of rhetoric that threatened to unleash a global trade war. Trump's new levies crystallized those fears.

He set a baseline of 10% across all imports and higher duties on some of the U.S.'s biggest trading partners.

Taken together, the duties will erect new barriers around the world's largest consumer economy, reversing decades of trade liberalization that have shaped the global order following World War Two.

In interviews, several investors and analysts said the rhetoric around tariffs had already caused an economic slowdown, hitting both consumer and corporate confidence. The big unknown now is how trading partners will react, they said.

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While Wednesday's announcement provided a baseline, it is likely to be followed by months of negotiations and debilitating uncertainty.

«It's created bad sentiment on the future, which slows down things,» said John Luke Tyner, fixed income analyst at Aptus Capital Advisors in Fairhope, Alabama. «You've seen slowdowns in projects, capital projects, CEOs' commentary on markets and the economy.»

Jay Hatfield, CEO at Infrastructure Capital Advisors, spoke bluntly of the impact. «This is the worst-case scenario that the market was expecting, and that's enough to potentially send the U.S. into a recession and