Stock markets surged on Thursday after the White House shared the outlines of a trade deal with the United Kingdom. The first such deal after President Donald Trump pressed pause on reciprocal tariffs with the world a month ago, it gave Wall Street hope that the U.S. can continue trade negotiations and hopefully avoid a recession.
“A trade agreement—even if it’s an agreement in principle—is what the markets were looking to see,” Chris Zaccarelli, chief investment officer for Northlight Asset Management, said in a note.
Trump talked up the deal, which he implied would be the first of many. “You better go out and buy stock now,” he told reporters in the Oval Office, adding that the economy “will be like a rocket ship that goes straight up.”
“We are disappointed that the administration prioritized the UK ahead of our North American partners,” said Matt Blunt. “Under this deal, it will now be cheaper to import a UK vehicle with very little U.S. content than a USMCA compliant vehicle from Mexico or Canada that is half American parts.”
Blunt said that hurts American automakers, suppliers, and auto workers.
“We hope this preferential access for UK vehicles over North American ones does not set a precedent for future negotiations with Asian and European competitors,” Blunt said.
