Alarm inside the Treasury Department over signs of distress in the US government bond market played a key role President Donald Trump’s decision to hit pause on his “reciprocal” tariff regime, according to three people familiar with the matter.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent raised those concerns directly to Trump in their meeting that preceded the announcement, underscoring the concerns shared by White House economic officials who had briefed the president on the accelerating selloff in the US Treasury market earlier in the day.

The market turmoil has rattled administration officials and market participants because it’s the exact opposite of what historically occurs in moments of global economic crisis or volatility. US Treasuries are considered the safest corner of the market. It’s the place investors across the globe flee toward with the assurance that the dominant US role in the global financial system will ensure asset safety.

But at the same moment Trump’s tariffs were causing foreign leaders to question the durability of longstanding US security and economic alliances, the rapid selloff of safe-haven assets raised concern that financial markets have similar concerns.

Trump acknowledged he’d been watching the bond market, telling reporters after the announcement the market is “very tricky.”

A spike in yields in the 10-year benchmark was of particular concern for Treasury officials. When the yields rise, US consumers face higher costs on things like mortgage rates for homes and financing costs for businesses.

Treasury Secretary’s Growing Concern Over Bond Market Turmoil Helped Drive Trump Pause, Sources Say

Inside Trump’s Tariff Retreat: How Fears of a Bond Market Catastrophe Convinced Trump to Hit the Pause Button

Fox Business' Charlie Gasparino: "Let's be clear what happened, who capitulated here and why ... it is the White House who capitulated based on everything I hear and all my sources, and the reason why is because of the bond market and what happened last night"

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— Lis Power (@lispower.bsky.social) 9 April 2025 at 20:46

So basically a combination of two things, Trump pissed his pants at the bond market situation and fucking Bessent "saved" America's ass but Trump also clearly gave his rich buddies a heads up before announcing the pause.

How long until Peter Navarro convinces Trump to fire Bessent.

The China Film Administration (CFA), the body that handles film releases and quotas in the country, released a statement on Thursday in response to a reporter’s question about whether the Trump administration’s increasing tariffs on China would impact imports of American films. A spokesperson for the CFA said that the U.S. government had made the wrong move to “abuse tariffs on China” and that the situation “will inevitably further reduce the domestic audience’s favorability towards American films.”

The statement added, “We will follow market rules, respect the audience’s choice, and moderately reduce the number of American films imported. China is the world’s second-largest film market. We have always adhered to a high level of opening up to the outside world and will introduce more excellent films from the world to meet market demand.”

China to Slash Number of Hollywood Films As Trade War Escalates

Ouch.

A lot of the car discussions are made more difficult by the fact that companies don't generally want to ship cars overseas. (Think of how much material could be shipped inside of a vehicle.)

Toyota hires 10's of thousands of US workers, and makes almost million cars every year in the US. Toyota alone makes more cars in the US than gets traded between the US and all of Europe. 

Honda is the same. 

Hyundai has two US plants from what I understand, the one makes almost 400k vehicles, and there's a newer one that is expected to make 500k vehicles a year. 

Yes, two Japanese and one Korean companies, but they make literally millions of cars in the US. 

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cq8kn5v37wxo

" In 2022, 692,334 new EU-made cars were exported to the US, worth €36bn ($37bn; £30bn). While only 116,207 new US-made cars went in the opposite direction"

White House just said the tariffs on China are actually 145%, not 125%, Lol.

Just making it up as they go along, by next week it will be 200%

"In 2022, 692,334 new EU-made cars were exported to the US, worth €36bn ($37bn; £30bn). While only 116,207 new US-made cars went in the opposite direction"

There is a very simple reason for the "only" part.
European customers just don't want these gas guzzling American tanks. There is almost nothing produced in the States that appeals to European customers (appart from the short p"is syndrom people).

The Dow, S&P 500, Nasdaq are down a decent amount today, the market is incredibly volatile, I suppose they realised there are still the China tariffs, Lol. It might still end in the green by the end of the day but this market is unstable and the soaring increase it had yesterday was dumb anyway, it increased far too much considering there are still some nasty tariffs in place and America's economy isn't in a good place.

Time for Trump to whip out another made up deal with China.

One small correction: Hyundai is from South Korea. Otherwsie, all of this is spot-on. I imagine that Toyota, Honda, and Hyundai are used by Trump to tout the power of the tariff. 

Pretty much none. Ford discontinued the Fiesta, Focus, and all of their other small and mid-sized cars. The only regular car they still make is the Mustang, which is a muscle car rather than a family sedan. GM likewise discontinued the Malibu, which was their basic midsized car. They all focus on SUVs and trucks. 

The sedan market in the US pretty much belongs to Asian models like the Toyota Camry and the Honda Civic. However, even Asian companies are dropping subcompact cars. The last remaining subcompact in the U.S. will be the Nissan Versa. Mitsubishi discontinued the other last remaining subcompact, the Mirage, last year. They enjoyed a surge in popularity when the Second Gulf War during Dubya's term spiked gas prices to the moon. However, part of this is because the gas mileage and price of a subcompact weren't significantly better than larger car sizes to justify the lack of interior space. I own a Toyota Tacoma, Toyota's mid-size truck entry, and it gets gas mileage as good as smaller cars did 20 years ago.  However, up until I bought it, I bought compact cars. My first new car was a Toyota Echo, and I actually own a Mitsubishi Mirage, which has been a solid car.