Trump tariffs live: China vows to ‘fight to the end’ in US trade war as FTSE rebounds

Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JPMorgan Chase called the tariffs a “significant and somewhat unprecedented forces” that have caused the company to “remain very cautious” about the financial future of the country.

“We are likely to see inflationary outcomes, not only on imported goods but on domestic prices, as input costs rise and demand increases on domestic products,” Dimon wrote in his annual letter. “Whether or not the menu of tariffs causes a recession remains in question, but it will slow down growth.”

My colleague Ariana Baio reports:

The health secretary has said patient data is “not for sale” as part of trade negotiations with the US but anyone who wants to use it for research purposes should pay for access.

“The NHS is not for sale and our patients’ data is not for sale,” Wes Streeting told BBC Breakfast.

The health data research service announced by the prime minister on Monday is underpinned by the principle that our data should be “publicly owned”, he said.

“At the heart of that health beta research service are the values and the principles that underpin our National Health Service, which is our data should be… publicly owned, it belongs to all of us. That data should only be shared for research purposes with our consent.

“And where we are working with scientists to generate the breakthroughs in science and research, the new treatments and new technology, we should get the benefit from that, and not just from being at the front of the queue, but if people want to use our data for research purposes they should have to pay in order to access that data and that research.

“The data must always belong to us. It should always be held securely. It should only be shared with our individual consent. It should always be anonymised.”

London’s FTSE 100 has risen in the first few minutes of trading on Tuesday, as a sense of optimism returned to the financial markets after several days of heavy losses.

The index, which tracks the UK’s top 100 listed companies, was up more than 1 per cent shortly after markets opened on Tuesday.

All other indexes on the London Stock Exchange were also in the green.

It follows a more positive session for Asian markets, with some indexes making gains after suffering from steep falls in previous days.

The FTSE 100 index has opened slightly up today.

The UK benchmark opened at around 0.9 per cent after closing down yesterday.

US tariffs create “another layer of challenge” for ensuring the supply of medicines, the UK health secretary has said.

Wes Streeting told Sky News: “Until this trade war erupted, we’d already had issues with medicines production and supply internationally.

“We are constantly watching and acting on this situation to try and get medicines into the country, to make sure we’ve got availability, to show some flexibility in terms of how medicines are dispensed, to deal with shortages.

“But whether it’s medicines, whether it’s parts for manufacturing, whether it’s … the ability of businesses in this country to turn a profit, this is an extremely turbulent situation.”

The steps the US has taken are “unprecedented in terms of global trade”, he said.

“As ever in terms of medicines, there’s a number of factors at play.

“There have been challenges in terms of manufacturing, challenges in terms of distribution, and if we start to see tariffs kicking in, that’s another layer of challenge, but we watch this situation extremely closely.”

“We work on a daily basis to make sure that we have the medicine supply this country needs.”

The FTSE 100 is set to open in a few minutes after plummeting as trading began yesterday morning.

The UK benchmark closed down 4.38 per cent yesterday afternoon.

Tech-billionaire and Tesla CEO Elon Musk made direct yet unsuccessful appeals to US president Donald Trump to reverse tariffs over the past weekend, Washington Post reported on Monday citing two people familiar with the matter.

This exchange marks the highest profile disagreement between the president and Musk, the report said. It follows Trump’s unveiling of a 10 per cent baseline tariff on all imports to the US along with higher duties on dozens of other countries.

China’s state planner has said it has heard “measures and suggestions” to deal with additional US tariffs from companies such as Trina Solar, Didi and Goertek.

The Chinese foreign ministry has vowed its country will “fight till the end” in a trade war with the US, promising to “take necessary measures” in response to Donald Trump’s tariffs threats.

It also accused the US of “typical unilateralism and protectionist economic bullying”.