Following Trump's announcement of tariff hikes, the three major US stock indices continued to fall, causing market unrest. The Wall Street Journal reported that on April 4th, at the NATO Foreign Ministers' Meeting held in Brussels, US Secretary of State Rubio defended Trump's tariff policy. Despite the current market turmoil, he insisted that the US needs to return to the manufacturing era, and although the economy is currently impacted by tariffs, it will eventually recover.

While defending Trump, Rubio couldn't help but direct criticism at China. He claimed: "If you are a company producing large quantities of products in China, suddenly shareholders or investors realize that production costs will significantly increase, stock prices will inevitably be affected. But as long as the rules are clarified, the market will self-adjust."

He explained that the US has the largest consumer market in the world, but the only thing exported is services. "We need to stop this phenomenon and return to an era where our country can produce goods."

He insisted that "the president (Trump) correctly concluded that the current global trade situation is disadvantageous to the United States but advantageous to others. He will change this situation, and his actions are absolutely correct."

"I think it's unfair to say that the economy is collapsing," he added. "What is collapsing is the market because the market is based on the stock value of companies, and the current production methods of these companies are detrimental to the US."

The Wall Street Journal

Later, White House Council of Economic Advisers Chairman Stephen Miller also defended Trump's policies. In an interview with Fox News, he said: "The drawbacks of excessive trade imbalances and excessive globalization did not happen overnight and cannot be solved in the short term." He frankly admitted that the impact of policy adjustments would be very intense and unavoidable, "This is the rule of the game. This is the current state of financial markets."

NBC News reported that on April 4th local time, the S&P 500 index closed down 6%. The Nasdaq Composite Index, which has a higher proportion of technology stocks, fell by 5.8%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell more than 2200 points, with a decline of about 5.5%.

Currently, the Nasdaq index has fallen 22% from its high point in December last year, entering a bear market (a decline of over 20% from the high point). The S&P index has fallen about 17% from its high point in February this year.

This article is an exclusive article of Guancha Observer and cannot be reprinted without permission.

Original text: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7489624285020045861/

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and welcome your opinions to be expressed through the 'thumbs up/thumbs down' button below.