No, that was the China tariff tweet. May 5th, a Sunday, around 2PM ET? That caused me to bail longs on Sunday night. Then Mexico came a bit after which drove it down further. Then end of June 3rd happened, and NQurious made his long call.
The proposed tariffs on Mexico came out of left field,
it was a black swan, it brough the tariff matter front & centre and made tariffs a market moving event. Issues with China were not a market mover until Mexico came in the picture... business was adjusting and working on plans to restructure the supply chains, the overall effect of China on business & markets was minimal, but throwing Mexico into the mix (a location business was proposing as an lternative to China) and doing it for reasons other than trade started the "what next", "who's next" questions that paralyzed business putting an end to supply relocation plans
No one imagined such action, Mexico is not China, its industrial base is mostly American, Japanese or European owned, the capital investment is not Mexican, Trump was, therefore, proposing to tax American manufactures and American capital investment, Mexico would lose jobs and that would magnify the illegal cross border attempts which Trump said was the reason for the tariff... totally irrational, making business fear the "what next" and shelve the re-sourcing plans, the announcement was also counterproductive to the intended effect of the China tariffs.
An idiotic announcement, little surprise that markets took it badly... at first markets thought it was a loose-canon tweet but when it was confirmed by the administration we saw a vertical drop on all US markets, US markets closed the month at -6.6%. Not implementing the Mexico rariffs did not restore confidence, Trump showed how reckless he can be towards the plight of business that business might well do nothing until he's gone.
