Markets shrug off Trump’s latest tariffs
Investors work on the New York Stock Exchange during morning trading on February 20, 2026 in New York.
Michael M. Santiago | Getty Images
Markets have largely welcomed US President Donald Trump’s latest salvo of tariffs; Investors are weighing whether these moves will have a lasting impact on trade or be another negotiating tactic.
The market has so far ignored tariffs. Asian stocks mostly higher, safe-haven assets hold firm and yields rise 10-year US Treasury little has changed in the meantime gold was about 1% higher. The US dollar index lost around 0.3 percent.
“The market did not react very much to this news. This was already widely expected,” Ed Yardeni, president of Yardeni Research, told CNBC. “This is what the market learned last year: [global] “The economy has been extremely resilient in the face of what I call Trump’s tariff turmoil.”
Sit hand in hand and do nothing, it’s just noise, in a few days there will be something new to worry about.
Hugh Dive
Atlas Fund Management
Trump’s move to raise global tariffs to 15% from the originally announced 10% came after the US Supreme Court struck down a broad range of tariffs Trump had imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.
Market strategists said the Supreme Court’s decision looked more like a procedural reset than a reversal of protectionist policy. The new tariffs, Part 122, replace the temporarily invalidated IEEPA tariffs while leaving in place duties under Part 301 and Part 232, which target steel, automotive and China.
So not much has changed to upset markets, at least not yet.
Sitting and doing nothing?
Analysts suggest the key now for investors is to be patient.
“None of Trump’s statements on trade policy are now considered durable,” said Hugh Dive, chief investment officer at Atlas Funds Management.
“Sit and do nothing, it’s just noise, in a few days there will be something new to worry about,” he added.
Trump has developed a reputation among investors for using tariffs as a negotiating tactic, announcing sweeping or aggressive measures and then recalibrating when market stress or diplomatic pushback becomes clear. This move is widely referred to as TACO: Trump Was Always Afraid.
“The president really wasn’t going to concede defeat without a counter move or strategy,” Yardeni said. But he noted that the new approach is limited: Tariffs under Section 122 are temporary and more difficult to tailor by country.
“Everything was so much easier when you could use tariffs like a sledgehammer,” he told CNBC. “It’s kind of become a rubber mallet now. It’s definitely not that powerful of a tool.”
On how investors should position, Yardeni echoed Altas’ Dive: “Sit still and do nothing. Focus on earnings, focus on the resilience of the economy.”
Others are a little more cautious.
“Unless you believe you can clearly see through the confusion, it makes sense to mitigate risk,” said Steve Sosnick, chief strategist at Interactive Brokers. Investors may consider reducing their exposure to U.S. stocks in favor of global companies that are less vulnerable to U.S. trade volatility, he said.
That said, investors have become accustomed to some degree to “the President’s capacity for anger and desire for revenge,” but this surge serves as an unpleasant reminder.
From a cross-asset perspective, Sosnick said the impact may be limited as long as positive investor psychology allows them to look beyond negative short-term effects. However, persistent uncertainty could put pressure on global trade and corporate planning and “make it incredibly difficult to see how future taxes can be viewed as market-friendly.”
Cryptocurrencies saw a harsher reaction on Monday. Bitcoin’s more than 5% decline reflects what one expert calls a “high beta liquidity asset rather than a traditional safe haven.”
“A 5% move is well within the normal volatility range,” said Global X Australia investment strategist Billy Leung. He added that in the absence of a regulatory shock, such pullbacks are often flow-based rather than fundamentals.
Bitcoin has been on a steady decline since last October after surpassing $125,000, with the decline extending into 2026. The world’s largest cryptocurrency is down 26% so far this year and has lost over 47% since its October high.
Leung’s basic scenario is that markets treat 15% tariffs as “more noise than a structural reset.”
“There may be an initial increase in volatility, but unless this clearly develops into a durable and broad-based rally, it is unlikely to materially derail global earnings or growth prospects.”
