President Donald Trump told reporters Tuesday that he’s backing off tariffs on select Chinese imports to give consumers some holiday-shopping relief.
“We’re doing this for the Christmas season,” he said. “Just in case some of the tariffs would have an impact on U.S. customers.”
Specifically, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative said it’s delaying imposing 10% tariffs on various products like cell phones, laptops and videogames, until Dec. 15.
Short-seller Jim Chanos, founder and managing partner of Kynikos Associates, used his “Diogenes” Twitter TWTR, +1.22% account to question the message the White House is sending with such a move:
David Rosenberg, chief economist at Gluskin Sheff & Associates, also brought up the notion that Trump is potentially caving to pressure:
Regardless, investors ate up the tariff news Tuesday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, +1.20% recovering from a series of big drops and rallying nearly 400 points. The S&P 500 SPX, +1.44% and Nasdaq Composite COMP, +1.67% saw even bigger gains.
Trump, who had previously insisted that the cost of tariffs would mostly hit Chinese suppliers, had been feeling the heat from Silicon Valley, with companies saying they would be forced to hike prices before the holiday shopping season.
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