San Francisco Frontiers - Autos lead market losses after Trump's latest tariffs salvo

Indications that levies lined up for the president's "Liberation Day" on April 2 would be less severe than feared had given investors a little hope and helped markets chalk up much-needed gains.

However, the White House's habit of alternating between tough talk and leniency has fanned uncertainty and the latest announcement did little to soothe nerves.

"What we're going to be doing is a 25 percent tariff on all cars that are not made in the United States," Trump said as he signed an order in the Oval Office.

The move takes effect at 12:01 am Eastern time (0400 GMT) on April 3 and affects foreign-made cars and light trucks. Key automobile parts will also be hit within the month.

About half of the cars sold in the United States are made within the country. Of the imported vehicles, about half come from Mexico and Canada, with Japan, South Korea and Germany also major suppliers.

Japan's government called the tariffs "extremely regrettable", while Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney called it a "direct attack" on his country's workers.

And French Finance Minister Eric Lombard warned on Thursday: "The only solution for the European Union will be to raise tariffs on American products in response."

There was little comfort in Trump's comments that reciprocal measures lined up for next week could be "very lenient".

The auto news hammered carmakers in Asia.

In Tokyo, Toyota -- the world's top-selling carmaker -- fell two percent, Honda shed 2.5 percent while Nissan was off 1.7 percent, while Mazda dived six percent.

Seoul-listed Hyundai gave up more than four percent.

Among European auto firms, Paris-listed Renault lost nearly two percent, while in Frankfurt BMW, Volkswagen and Mercedes lost around four percent.

In Mumbai, India's Tata Motors, which exports Jaguar Land Rovers to the United States, lost more than five percent.

US-listed car giants also tumbled with General Motors, Ford and Stellantis all deep in the red in after-hours trade.

"It's a stark reminder: Trump's not bluffing -- or at least he's doing a damn good job pretending he's not," said SPI Asset Management's Stephen Innes.

"And if he goes full throttle with this round of tariffs -- especially the reciprocal measures slated for April 2 -- markets are staring down the barrel of the worst-case macro cocktail: faster inflation, slower growth and a fresh wave of volatility."

The retreat in the auto sector hit broader markets, which were already shaky owing to worries over Trump's trade agenda.

Tokyo, Sydney, Seoul, Wellington, Taipei, Bangkok and Manila all fell.

London opened on the back foot along with Paris and Frankfurt.

"Within the Asia-Pacific region, the car levies will hit Japan and South Korea the hardest," said Stefan Angrick and Dave Chia at Moody’s Analytics.

"About six percent of Japan's total exports are cars shipped to the US. In South Korea's case, it's four percent. Such a sizeable tariff hike will undermine confidence, hit production and reduce orders."

Hong Kong and Shanghai eked out gains along with Singapore and Mumbai.

Traders were given some cheer after Trump told reporters that he might offer to reduce tariffs on China to get Beijing's approval for the sale of popular social media platform TikTok.

Trump said this month Washington was in talks with four groups interested in buying TikTok, which has been in limbo after a US law ordered it to divest from its Chinese owner ByteDance or be banned in the country owing to national security concerns.

However, Beijing rebuffed the suggestion on Thursday.

The broadly negative day followed losses on all three of Wall Street's main indexes ahead of the president's announcement, with the CBOE Volatility Index -- or "fear gauge" -- jumping almost seven percent.

Market jitters were compounded by data on Tuesday showing consumer sentiment had fallen to its lowest level since 2021 as concerns about higher prices increase.

- Key figures around 0700 GMT -

Tokyo - Nikkei 225: DOWN 0.6 percent at 37,799.97 (close)

Hong Kong - Hang Seng Index: UP 0.4 percent at 23,578.80 (close)

Shanghai - Composite: UP 0.2 percent at 3,373.75 (close)

London - FTSE 100: DOWN 0.5 percent at 8,643.29

Euro/dollar: UP at $1.0765 from $1.0757 on Wednesday

Pound/dollar: UP at $1.2913 from $1.2891

Dollar/yen: DOWN at 150.52 yen from 150.54 yen

Euro/pound: DOWN at 83.37 pence from 83.41 pence

West Texas Intermediate: DOWN 0.2 percent at $69.49 per barrel

Brent North Sea Crude: DOWN 0.2 percent at $73.65 per barrel

New York - Dow: DOWN 0.3 percent at 42,454.79 (close)

R.Baker--SFF