The S&P 500 was down 3.3 per cent in early trading on Thursday, more than the losses seen in other major markets.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 1150 points, and the Nasdaq composite was off 4.3 per cent.

Little was spared as fear flared globally about the potentially higher inflation and weakening economic growth that tariffs can create.

Prices fell for everything from crude oil to Big Tech stocks to small companies that invest only in US real estate.

The double-digit tariff hikes rippled through world markets and economists were warning the risk of recession was climbing.

Oil prices fell more than 4 per cent and the US dollar hit its lowest level against the Japanese yen since early October.

It was the fourth straight day that US markets have began falling early, though unlike the previous three, it appeared unlikely stocks would recover by day’s end.

After the US market closed Wednesday, Trump declared a 10 per cent baseline tax on imports from all countries and higher tariff rates on dozens of nations that run trade surpluses with the United States.

Trump said the US would charge a 34 per cent tax on imports from China, a 20 per cent tax on imports from the European Union, and 32 per cent on Taiwan, a crucial supplier of computer chips.

Australia’s almost $40 billion in exports to the US will likely suffer but Canberra escaped any additional tariff beyond the so-called “baseline” figure applied globally.

Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.9 per cent to 7859.70.

Trump’s announcement came as a “major shock,” Yeap Junrong of IG said in a commentary.

“China, in particular, was hit with an additional 34 per cent tariff, bringing its total tariff burden to 64 per cent when accounting for previous measures.”

Losses in Asia were partly blunted by expectations of further economic stimulus from Beijing to offset the impact of the higher tariffs.

Trump has said he wants tariffs to make the global system more fair and to bring manufacturing jobs back to the United States from other countries.

But tariffs threaten to grind down growth for the US and other economies while exacerbating inflation, which appears to have become stuck stubbornly above the Federal Reserve’s 2 per cent target.

Those fears played out across the retail sector early. A number of US companies in have shifted production to places like Vietnam in recent years to avoid sanctions on China. But Vietnam is among the hardest hit under Trump’s tariffs.

Shares of Nike, Best Buy, and Dollar Tree plunged more than 11 per cent before the opening bell Thursday.

Germany’s DAX fell 2.4 per cent, the CAC 40 in Paris lost 2.7 per cent and Britain’s FTSE 100 shed 1.5 per cent to midday.

In Asian trading, Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 index dipped 4 per cent briefly, with automakers and banks taking big hits. It closed down 2.8 per cent at 34,735.93.