US stock markets fall further after Trump curbs chip sales to China; gold hits new record high – as it happened

Global stocks and the dollar have sold off after Donald Trump imposed limits on chip sales to China.

Nvidia said it expects a $5.5bn (£4.1bn) hit after his administration barred the chip designer from selling crucial artificial intelligence chips in China.

Trump’s tariffs will send international trade into reverse this year, depressing global economic growth, the World Trade Organization has warned.

In its latest snapshot of the global trading system, the Geneva-based institution says it had previously expected goods trade to expand by a healthy 2.7% this year. As a result of Washington’s trade policy, it is now forecasting a 0.2% decline.

Inflation in the UK and eurozone has slowed, to 2.6% and 2.2% respectively, increasing pressure on the Bank of England and the European Central Bank to cut interest rates further.

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Thank you for reading. We’ll be back tomorrow. Take care! – JK

Spotify has been hit by a service outage which has left many users unable to stream music or use the firm’s app.

The company said in a statement posted on X that it was “aware of some issues” and that it was “checking them out”.

Many users say they have unable to play audio not already downloaded to their music library, with others say the platform’s app is slow or unresponsive.

Spotify has not confirmed the cause of the issue.

According to service status website Downdetector, problems with the music streaming service began at around 1pm, and more than 20,000 reports had been logged by the monitoring site from users flagging issues.

The Bank of Canada has held its policy rate at 2.75%.

The central bank explained its decision in a statement:

The major shift in direction of US trade policy and the unpredictability of tariffs have increased uncertainty, diminished prospects for economic growth, and raised inflation expectations. Pervasive uncertainty makes it unusually challenging to project GDP growth and inflation in Canada and globally.

Instead, the April Monetary Policy Report (MPR) presents two scenarios that explore different paths for US trade policy. In the first scenario, uncertainty is high but tariffs are limited in scope. Canadian growth weakens temporarily and inflation remains around the 2% target. In the second scenario, a protracted trade war causes Canada’s economy to fall into recession this year and inflation rises temporarily above 3% next year. Many other trade policy scenarios are possible. There is also an unusual degree of uncertainty about the economic outcomes within any scenario, since the magnitude and speed of the shift in US trade policy are unprecedented.

Oil prices have risen as the market hoped for potential trade talks between China and the US, and following a report that Iraq plans to cut oil production in April.

Brent crude rose by 84 cents, or 1.3%, to $65.49 a barrel, while US crude rose by a similar amount to $62.12 a barrel.

Both global benchmarks rose after Bloomberg News quoted an anonymous source as saying that China wants more respect from the Trump administration before agreeing to talks, and that Beijing wants the US to appoint a new main contact in future talks.

UBS analyst Giovanni Staunovo said:

A de-escalation of the trade war between the US and China would reduce the downside in economic growth prospects and limit the downside for oil demand growth.

Donald Trump said he will personally attend a meeting of Japanese and US trade officials today, in a surprise move that shows how keen he is to oversee trade deal negotiations after his barrage of tariffs on imports from many countries (which have mostly been paused for 90 days).

Tokyo sent its economic revitalisation minister Ryosei Akazawa to kickstart the talks, expecting to face US treasury secretary Scott Bessent in Washington.

But Trump weighed in, saying on the social media platform Truth Social:

Japan is coming in today to negotiate Tariffs, the cost of military support, and ‘TRADE FAIRNESS’.

I will attend the meeting, along with Treasury & Commerce Secretaries. Hopefully something can be worked out which is good (GREAT!) for Jaapn and the USA!

Stocks on Wall Street have fallen after the opening bell, joining the global rout.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 323 points, or 1.9%, to 16,499 while the Dow Jones fell by 190 points, or 0.5%, to 40,179 and the S&P 500 slid by 61 points to 5,335, a 1.1% decline.

Nvidia shares fell by 6.5%. The US chipmaker said it expects a $5.5bn (£4.1bn) hit after Donald Trump’s administration barred the chip designer from selling crucial artificial intelligence chips in China.

Shares in Europe have fallen between 0.3% (FTSE 100) and 0.7% (France’s CAC).

The US dollar has sold off again, down by 0.6% against a basket of major currencies. The pound has given up some of its gains, though, trading 0.2% higher at $1.3262.

While US retail sales surprised with a strong gain last month, industrial production fell more than expected, despite higher output at American factories.

Factory output rose at a modest pace, the month before Donald Trump’s announcement of sweeping tariffs.

Overall industrial production, which comprises manufacturing, energy, mining and quarrying, fell by 0.3% in March, while economists had expected a 0.2% dip – the first decline in four months. Output at utilities fell because of warmer weather, while mining and energy extraction rose.

Factory production rose by 0.3% followed by a revised 1% gain in February that was fuelled by a surge in carmaking.

Retail sales in the US rose more than expected in March, suggesting that consumers were racing to snap up goods before the implementation of president Donald Trump’s tariffs.

Retail sales jumped by 1.4% last month, compared with a 0.2% gain in February, according to the US Census Bureau.

The sales surge comes in the month before Trump unveiled steep ‘reciprocal’ tariffs on a many countries on what he called ‘liberation day’ on 2 April – only to pause them for 90 days, with the exception of Chinese imports to the US, on which he slapped a 145% duty.

Sony has already announced that it is raising the price of its PlayStation 5 digital version.

Despite the strong retail sales, US stock market futures are pointing to a lower open on Wall Street – the tech-heavy Nasdaq is seen opening 1.7% lower, down 315 points, while the Dow Jones is set for a 0.3% dip, down 108 points, and the S&P 500 is expected to drop by 50 points, or 0.9%.

EY, one of the “big four” accounting firms, is being investigated over how it audited the accounts of the Post Office as the postal branch network wrestled with the Horizon software scandal that resulted in hundreds of post office operators being wrongly convicted.

The UK’s accounting regulator, the Financial Reporting Council (FRC), said it had begun an investigation into whether the firm met its standards “with particular reference to matters related to the Horizon IT system”.

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The Horizon accounting software was developed by Fujitsu and was at the heart of the Post Office scandal, described as the UK’s most widespread miscarriage of justice, which has been the subject of a long-running inquiry that concluded its hearings in December.

The FRC said:

So as not to interfere with the Post Office Horizon IT inquiry, the opening of this investigation follows the conclusion of the public hearings. While the inquiry was extensive, it purposefully did not encompass the role or knowledge of external auditors in its scope.

Global economic growth is forecast to slow sharply this year because of trade tensions and mounting uncertainty, according to the United Nations’ trade agency.

The UN trade and development agency (UNCTAD) is predicting growth will slow to 2.3% this year from 2.8% in 2024. It said:

Global growth is projected to slow to 2.3% in 2025, placing the world economy on a recessionary path.