On Wednesday, markets wobbled again.
In Asia, indexes were flat to down: Shanghai and Japan’s Nikkei were flat, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng lost 0.5%, and India’s Nifty 50 slipped 0.3%. In Europe, the Stoxx Europe 600 was off 0.2% in midday trading, and the U.S. premarket was little better.
The bigger question for investors is whether the jump scares are doing long-term damage. Paul Donovan, chief economist of UBS Global Wealth Management, seems to think so.
“Equity markets seemingly rallied on optimistic comments from U.S. President Trump around trade. So much focus on the words of one individual is unusual,” he wrote in a Wednesday note seen by Fortune. “Trump has the power to limit future economic damage from new trade taxes, but cannot undo the damage of past policy swings. For example, comments in yesterday’s sentiment data highlighted that companies are delaying decisions in the face of policy uncertainty, even as Trump retreated from some tariffs.”
Here’s a snapshot of today’s action prior to the opening bell in New York:
