President Donald Trump said he was watching volatility in the bond market in recent days and appeared to indicate that it was among the factors that led to his decision to institute a 90-day pause on some tariffs.

CNN reported prior to the president’s decision that US Treasury yields had risen in recent days as investors sold off bonds. The benchmark 10-year yield Wednesday morning was 4.4% – up from 3.9% before Trump unveiled his tariffs.

Trump also said he watched JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon on Fox Business Network this morning.

The CEO “made the statement to the effect that something had to be done with the tariffs and trade. … He understood it,” Trump said. “It wasn’t sustainable what was happening. Somebody had to pull the trigger. I was willing to pull the trigger.”

During that appearance, Dimon warned that a recession was a “likely outcome” of the escalating trade war resulting from Trump’s tariff policies.

“No one’s wishing for (a recession) but hopefully if there is one it’ll be short,” he said. “I do think fixing these tariff issues and trade issues would be a good thing to do.”

President Donald Trump told CNN’s Jeff Zeleny that he decided to institute a 90-day pause on new reciprocal tariffs because he thought “people were jumping a little bit out of line. They were getting yippy,” following last week’s tariffs announcement.

He touted outreach from other countries hit by tariffs. “They all want to make a deal – somebody had to do what we did, and I did a 90-day pause for the people that didn’t retaliate, because they told them, ‘If you retaliate, we double it,’” he said. “And that’s what I did with China, because they did retaliate, so we’ll see how it all works out. I think it’s going to work out amazing.”

Pressed on his about-face on a pause on tariffs, however, Trump told CNN, “You have to have flexibility,” acknowledging his team was monitoring the markets for reaction.

Some context: US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent had earlier sought to cast Trump’s decision as part of a longstanding master plan to encourage nations to negotiate, and not a haphazard application that shook the global economy.

“This was driven by the president’s strategy. He and I had a long talk on Sunday, and this was his strategy all along,” he said. “You might even say he goaded China into a bad position. They responded. They have shown themselves to the world to be bad actors.”

President Donald Trump said he intends to make “fair deals for everybody” after he announced a complete three-month pause on all the “reciprocal” tariffs, with the exception of China.

Earlier today, the US treasury secretary said Trump’s decision to pause the tariffs will allow time to negotiate new trade agreements.

Trump announced he is raising tariff rates on China to 125% after Beijing announced additional retaliatory tariffs against the US earlier today.

Trump claimed “people took advantage of our country” and “ripped us off” for decades, though didn’t specify what countries he was talking about.

The US is seeing “tremendous amount of spirit from other countries, including China,” President Donald Trump said this afternoon after announcing a 90-day pause on all the “reciprocal” tariffs, with the exception of China, which will see tariffs increased to 125%.

He said that he granted the 90-day pause to countries that didn’t retaliate with tariffs.

“I told them, if you retaliate, we’re going to double it,” he said. “And that’s what I did with China, because they did retaliate. So we’ll see how it all works out. I think it’s going to work out amazing.”

This post was updated with more of Trump’s remarks this afternoon.

The US economy still faces a significant risk of a recession even after President Donald Trump’s 90-day pause on country-specific tariffs, Goldman Sachs warns.

In a note to clients this afternoon, Goldman Sachs economists projected the US economy will grow at a very slow pace of just 0.5% in 2025. The Wall Street bank now sees a 45% chance of a recession over the next 12 months.

Before Trump’s decision to pause most tariffs, Goldman Sachs warned that a recession was the most likely outcome due to all the new tariffs that kicked in.

In other words, Goldman Sachs is signaling the US economy is not out of the woods, not yet at least.

Hours before issuing his stunning reversal of his reciprocal tariffs, President Donald Trump urged investors to buy, posting on Truth Social, “THIS IS A GREAT TIME TO BUY!!!”

He concluded the post with “DJT.” Although those are the president’s initials, it was also potentially a nod to Trump Media & Technology Group Corp, which trades under the ticker “DJT.”

At the time, the parent of Truth Social, DJT shares were down nearly 13% this month. After the announcement, shares were up over 20% for Wednesday alone.

President Donald Trump has, at least for now, narrowed his trade war to isolate China, the world’s second largest economy after the US.

Trump appears to be ratcheting up pressure in the hopes that President Xi Jinping will blink first. He may be waiting a while, according to Wendong Zhang, an assistant professor of applied economics and policy at Cornell University.

Stocks turned sharply higher today in response to President Donald Trump’s abrupt shift in tariff policy that had brought global investors to their knees.

But US markets remain far below where they were at the start of Trump’s term.

Since January 17, the last trading day before his inauguration, US stocks have shed $10.6 trillion, according to data from S&P Global.

Some $6 trillion of that loss came in just the past week, as investors sold stocks in response to Trump’s tariff agenda, which promised to upend global trade and potentially plunge the US and other economies into a recession.

The S&P 500 remains down 5.5% from April 2, the day Trump announced his reciprocal tariffs. However, the market is up 10.8% from its nadir reached on Monday.

GOP senators said there was cheering and clapping and “a lot of smiles” when the 90-day pause on tariffs was announced during their lunch Wednesday, and defended the president’s decision to pause the tariffs, despite publicly doubling down on them for days.

Sen. Mike Rounds told reporters, “I think it really lightened up the lunch discussion.”

Senate Majority Leader John Thune told reporters that tariff policy is a “work in progress, but it sounds like they are getting good results.”

Sen. John Cornyn said he thinks the pause allows people some sense of relief. When asked about the mood in the room when the news was revealed, and whether there was relief, Cornyn replied, “Jubilation was too strong a word but it was positive.”

Sen. Ron Johnson, who has expressed concern about how tariffs will affect his constituents in Wisconsin, said senators in the lunch were “happy” to see markets start going up, and that he felt relieved.

Sen. John Kennedy added that, “Most people were pleased.”

Sen. Kevin Cramer said the news didn’t surprise him. “It’s on par with how Donald Trump responds to stimulus,” he said. “He doesn’t tip his hand unless he wants to.”

Sen. Eric Schmitt, who had forcefully defended the tariffs in previous days, argued that the pause shows that the administration’s strategy is working – and is not a sign that they are caving to market pressure. “I think this is a sign that there’s an acknowledgement worldwide that America doesn’t want to be taken advantage of anymore,” he said.

Separately, Sen. Kevin Cramer separately told CNN that the pause has led to “optimism.”

“There’s all kinds of opportunity now that we weren’t sure was going to exist 12 hours ago,” he said.

CNN’s Annie Grayer and Alison Main contributed reporting to this post.

President Donald Trump’s trade adviser Peter Navarro — a longtime advocate of tariffs — insisted the president’s move today to pause new reciprocal levies was not a repudiation of his economic vision but rather validation of the negotiating power of tariff threats.

He said that those concerned about Trump’s tariffs are underestimating his ability to make deals with other countries: “All the nervous Nellies on Wall Street who try to undermine us consistently underestimate the power of the president to negotiate.”

He said the goal in upcoming negotiations and discussions with various countries is to “dramatically reduce our trade deficit” and “level the playing field.”

Trump announced a 90-day pause on initial reciprocal tariffs for all countries except for China. For countries wanting to negotiate, Trump said a 10% tariff will be in place across the board.

Navarro previously defended Trump’s economic policies and stood behind the president’s widespread tariffs.

This post has been updated with more comments from Navarro.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that President Donald Trump’s announcement raising tariffs on China to 125% is “about bad actors,” saying the president chose to increase tariffs on Beijing “due to their insistence on escalation.”

Still, the Treasury secretary insisted the US is not engaged in a “trade war,” despite spiraling uncertainty as China and the US have imposed increasingly steep tariffs on each other.

“I’m not calling it a trade war, but I’m saying that China has escalated, and President Trump responded very courageously to that, and we are going to work on a solution with our trading partners,” Bessent said.

He pointed to ongoing negations with other nations in the region, including Vietnam, Japan, South Korea and India.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent sought to cast President Donald Trump’s decision to pause new tariffs as part of a longstanding master plan to encourage nations to negotiate, and not a haphazard application that shook the global economy.

CNN previously reported that Bessent traveled to Mar-a-Lago on Sunday to discuss the tariffs with Trump, encouraging him to focus on an endgame of reaching new deals with a variety of countries.

Bessent said Trump would be “personally involved” in all the discussions as he seeks out concessions.

“No one creates leverage for himself like President Trump,” Bessent said.

President Donald Trump’s sudden shift in his tariff regime may have been welcome news to investors, but they might not stave off a recession, according to Joe Brusuelas, the chief economist of consulting firm RSM US.

Earlier on Wednesday, RSM US raised its recession odds to 55% from 20%. Brusuelas said the recession is likely to occur this quarter. The increasingly steep tariffs on Chinese imports likely will have repercussions domestically as well, he said.

“Based on anecdotal discussions I’ve had with clients is that many of them are going to choose just to lead the products at the docks — they don’t have the cash reserves to pay the tax,” he said. “So, we’re going to see dislocation across the economy driven by an adverse supply shock.”

In addition to the 90-day pause, Trump indicated that the 10% across-the-board tariff would remain in place. Businesses aren’t waiting to take action, Brusuelas said, but “are moving to raise price(s) forthrightly.”

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent sought to position President Donald Trump’s 90-day pause on some tariffs as a victory and signal of Trump’s negotiation prowess, saying the move was the result of overwhelming response from US allies. He dismissed the suggestion that the decision was a reversal.

“We are expecting them to come with their best deal,” he added.

Pressed once more on what led to the pause and whether major market volatility played into the move, Bessent suggested that it was a direct result of the more than 75 countries that have come to the White House to negotiate and a function of the time it will take to cut each deal.

“It is just a processing problem. Each one of these solutions is going to be bespoke. It is going to take some time. And President Trump wants to be personally involved, so that’s why we’re getting the 90-day pause,” he said.

Bessent praised his boss, saying he personally decided to hold his fire until Wednesday.

“It was the president’s decision to wait until today. … No one creates leverage for himself like President Trump,” he said.

US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said he wasn’t aware of President Donald Trump’s 90-day tariff pause until after it was announced.

Trump’s announcement in a post on his Truth Social platform came as Greer was testifying before the House Ways and Means Committee on Trump’s aggressive trade agenda.

Throughout the hearing he said the overall US trade is an “emergency” that warrants the massive tariffs the president announced last week, yet Trump himself pressed pause.

Asked by Democratic Rep. Steven Horsford of Nevada if he was clued in on Trump’s latest move, Greer said he was “a few minutes ago.”

Greer then said he was aware the policy change was a possibility this morning, but when asked directly if he knew the policy was going into effect, he replied that the administration discusses “all kinds of policies.”

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt dismissed concerns about President Donald Trump’s decision to impose widespread tariffs in the first place, telling reporters it is a negotiation tactic, as markets react now to a 90-day pause.

The “art of the deal” refers to Trump’s book, “Trump: The Art of the Deal,” about his career in business.

Leavitt also criticized worries that the tariffs on allies would push countries closer to China.

“In fact, we’ve seen the opposite effect. The entire world is calling the United States of America, not China, because they need our markets, they need our consumers, and they need this president in the Oval Office to talk to them,” she said.

The press secretary claimed that more than 75 countries called the US to negotiate. The retaliatory tariffs went into effect just after midnight today.

President Donald Trump’s decision to back off worldwide tariffs on every nation except China rewarded countries that chose not to retaliate amid a brewing trade war, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said.

He said the pause would allow time to negotiate new trade agreements.

Bessent said the rate for countries looking to negotiate with the US would come down to 10%, including on Canada and Mexico.

“Every country in the world who wants to come and negotiate, we are willing to hear you,” he said.

He said the administration expected countries to come to the president with their best deal as they look to realign global trade.

US stocks were volatile and skyrocketed higher today after President Donald Trump posted on social media that he authorized a 90-day pause on all the reciprocal tariffs that went into effect at midnight, with the exception of China.

US stocks had a mixed start to the day after China announced significant retaliation and the European Union announced countermeasures against Trump’s enormous “reciprocal” tariffs that had gone into effect earlier in the day, upending global trade.

Yet US stocks surged in the afternoon after Trump posted on Truth Social that he authorized the 90-day pause on most reciprocal tariffs.

Here’s a snapshot: The Dow skyrocketed more than 2,300 points, or 6.2%. The S&P 500 shot up 7%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq soared 8.5%.

Tech stocks like Apple (AAPL), Nvidia (NVDA), Tesla (TSLA) all surged more than 6%, signaling investors might be bargain shopping while stocks are relatively cheap.

Remember: The S&P 500 had been on the precipice of bear market territory, coming close to a stunningly rapid drop of 20% from the all-time high it hit just seven weeks ago on February 19.

President Donald Trump was joined by his top economic advisers — Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick — to write his message announcing he was backing off his tariffs for 90 days.

President Donald Trump said he is applying a 90-day pause on new tariffs as his trade war shakes the world economy.

At the same time, he announced he was raising tariff rates on China to 125%, ratcheting up his tit-for-tat with Beijing.

It was not immediately clear which countries the pause will apply to. CNN is reaching out to the White House for further clarification.

In the same message, Trump said he was raising US tariffs on China as he works to bring Beijing to the negotiating table.