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(NEW YORK) — President Donald Trump on Friday said he is extending the deadline for TikTok to be banned or sold off by its Chinese-owned parent company, ByteDance.

The previous April 5 deadline will be pushed 75 days, Trump said in a post to his social media platform. It’s the second time he has pushed the deadline since taking office.

“My Administration has been working very hard on a Deal to SAVE TIKTOK, and we have made tremendous progress. The Deal requires more work to ensure all necessary approvals are signed, which is why I am signing an Executive Order to keep TikTok up and running for an additional 75 days,” Trump wrote.

The move comes as Walmart is actively considering joining a group of investors to buy TikTok, according to sources close to the deal, who say Walmart’s interest was triggered by Amazon throwing their hat into the ring.

Back in 2020, Walmart said it was teaming up with Microsoft to make a bid for TikTok. The app would give the retail giant access to hundreds of millions of consumers who could become their customers and audiences for their advertisements, in a boost to their e-commerce business.

The Trump administration is considering a deal to save TikTok that would have China maintaining control of the algorithm that will be leased to a U.S. company, with a minority ownership stake, a source close to the deal told ABC News.

It’s unclear if that proposal follows the bipartisan law that Congress passed, which forces TikTok’s Chinese parent company to sell the wildly popular social media platform or face a ban in the U.S.

Sources say there are several investors interested in jumping in to purchase TikTok, including Amazon, Oracle and Applovin. A source close to the deal also says that Tim Stokely, the founder of the adult website OnlyFans, has also made a late-stage bid for TikTok.

The White House and Walmart have not immediately responded to requests for comment.

On Thursday, Trump hinted that his recently announced tariffs on China could be a negotiating tactic to achieve a deal on a TikTok sale.

“If somebody said that we’re going to give you something that’s so phenomenal, as long as they’re giving us something, that’s good,” he told reporters aboard Air Force One.

“We have a situation with TikTok where China will probably say, ‘We’ll approve a deal, but will you do something on the tariff?'” he said. “The tariffs give us great power to negotiate.”

Even if Trump approves a deal, China will still need to sign off on it. U.S.-China relations are tense, with the US about to hit China with a whopping 54% tariff. China is now retaliating with its own 34% tariffs on imports from the U.S.

“We hope to continue working in Good Faith with China, who I understand are not very happy about our Reciprocal Tariffs,” Trump wrote in his social media post on Friday.

“We do not want TikTok to ‘go dark.’ We look forward to working with TikTok and China to close the Deal,” he added.

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(WASHINGTON) — Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said Friday he expects President Donald Trump’s tariff policy will hike prices and slow economic growth, while noting that key indicators “still show a solid economy.”

Policy changes implemented by the White House have contributed to a “highly uncertain outlook,” Powell said, making the remarks as stocks plummeted amid an escalating global trade war.

Despite the murky outlook, Powell said Trump’s tariffs would likely increase consumer prices.

“While tariffs are highly likely to generate at least a temporary rise in inflation, it’s also possible the effects will be more persistent,” Powell told the audience at the Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing conference in Washington, D.C.

Minutes before Powell was set to speak, Trump sharply criticized the Fed chair, calling on him to reduce interest rates.

“This would be a PERFECT time for Fed Chairman Jerome Powell to cut Interest Rates,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social.

Trump also claimed without evidence that political considerations have played a role in Powell’s decision-making on interest-rate policy.

On Friday, Powell declined to directly respond to Trump. Still, Powell strongly rebuked any concern about his political independence.

“I don’t respond to political remarks,” Powell said, adding that it would be inappropriate for the central bank to comment on U.S. trade policy.

“We try to stay as far as we can from the political process,” Powell said. “That’s what people expect from us.”

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

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(NEW YORK) — U.S. stocks continued their slide in early trading on Friday, just hours after China announced retaliatory tariffs in response to President Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day” levies.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeted 925 points, or 2.25%, while the S&P 500 dropped 2.4%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq declined 3%.

On Friday, China said it will impose 34% tariffs in response to the levies issued by Trump earlier this week.

In a social media post hours later, Trump signaled a commitment to the tariff policy.

“TO THE MANY INVESTORS COMING INTO THE UNITED STATES AND INVESTING MASSIVE AMOUNTS OF MONEY, MY POLICIES WILL NEVER CHANGE,” Trump said on Truth Social.

All three major American stock markets closed down on Thursday, marking their worst day since June 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The NASDAQ fell 6%, the S&P 500 4.8% and the Dow Jones nearly 4%

Global markets gave early signals of the difficulty to come on Friday. Japan’s Nikkei index lost 3.5% on Friday, while the broader Japanese Topix index fell 4.45%.

In South Korea, the KOSPI index was down 1.7%, with the country grappling with both Trump’s tariffs and the news that South Korea’s Constitutional Court upheld the impeachment of President Yoon Suk Yeol.

Indian investors joined the sell-off on Friday, with the Nifty 50 and BSE Sensex indexes both falling more than 1%. India’s stock markets had previously performed better than others thanks to lower tariffs than competitors like China, Indonesia and Vietnam.

Australia’s S&P/ASX, meanwhile, continued its slide into Friday with another 2% drop taking the index to an 8-month low.

In Europe, too, stock markets fell upon opening. Britain’s FTSE 100 index dropped more than 1%, Germany’s DAX fell 0.75%, France’s CAC lost 0.9% and Spain’s IBEX slipped 1.4%.

Trump’s Wednesday announcement of tariffs on nearly all American trade partners sent U.S. and foreign markets alike into a tailspin.

ABC News’ Leah Sarnoff, Max Zahn, Victor Ordoñez and Zunaira Zaki contributed to this report.

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(NEW YORK) — U.S. hiring surged in March, blowing past economists’ expectations and defying concern on Wall Street about a possible economic recession, government data on Friday showed.

The fresh data offered news of an upsurge in employer activity as stocks suffered a second day of selloffs over sweeping new tariffs announced by President Donald Trump earlier this week.

The U.S. added 228,000 jobs in March, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. That figure amounted to robust hiring and marked a major increase from 151,000 jobs added in the previous month.

The unemployment rate ticked up slightly to 4.2%, but it remains historically low.

The uptick in hiring last month came despite staff cuts imposed by the federal government amid cost-cutting efforts undertaken by the Department of Government Efficiency.

Federal government employment declined by 4,000 jobs in March, following a dropoff of 11,000 jobs the previous month.

The job gains came primarily in health care, transportation and warehousing.

Average hourly wages climbed 3.8% over the year ending in March, indicating that pay increases outpaced the inflation rate over that period.

Despite escalating trade tensions and market turbulence since Trump took office in January, the economy remains in solid shape by several key measures.

The unemployment rate stands at a historically low level. Meanwhile, inflation sits well below a peak attained in 2022, though price increases register nearly a percentage point higher than the Fed’s goal of 2%.

“The economy is strong,” Fed Chair Jerome Powell said at a press conference in Washington, D.C., last month.

Tariffs announced earlier this week, however, threaten to derail hiring and worsen inflation, multiple analysts previously told ABC News.

The far-reaching levies increase the likelihood of a recession by driving up prices, sapping consumer spending, slowing business activity and risking layoffs, they said.

The White House plans to slap a 10% tax on all imported products and place additional duties on items from some of the largest U.S. trading partners, including China and the European Union.

“​​These policies, if sustained, would likely push the U.S. and global economy into recession this year,” J.P. Morgan said in a note to clients after the tariff announcement.

“Recession risks will likely rise,” Deutsche Bank added.

U.S. stocks plunged on Thursday in the first trading session after Trump unveiled the new tariffs.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeted 1,679 points, or nearly 4%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq declined almost 6%.

The S&P 500 tumbled 4.8%, marking its worst trading day since 2020.

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(NEW YORK) — Hiring data to be released on Friday will offer a gauge of the nation’s economic health, just a day after President Donald Trump’s sweeping new tariffs triggered a major stock selloff.

The jobs report, which details employer activity in March, is set to provide a snapshot of staff cuts imposed by the federal government last month amid cost-cutting efforts undertaken by the Department of Government Efficiency.

The fresh data may also offer clues about possible fallout from a previous round of tariffs imposed on Mexico, Canada and China at the outset of March.

Economists expect the U.S. to have added 140,000 jobs in March. That figure would mark a slight slowdown from hiring in the previous month, but it would still amount to solid job growth.

Despite escalating trade tensions and market turbulence since Trump took office in January, the economy remains in solid shape by several key measures.

The unemployment rate stands at a historically low level. Meanwhile, inflation sits well below a peak attained in 2022, though price increases register nearly a percentage point higher than the Fed’s goal of 2%.

“The economy is strong,” Fed Chair Jerome Powell said at a press conference in Washington, D.C., last month.

Tariffs announced earlier this week, however, threaten to derail hiring and worsen inflation, multiple analysts previously told ABC News.

The far-reaching levies increase the likelihood of a recession by driving up prices, sapping consumer spending, slowing business activity and risking layoffs, they said.

The White House plans to slap a 10% tax on all imported products and place additional duties on items from some of the largest U.S. trading partners, including China and the European Union.

“​​These policies, if sustained, would likely push the U.S. and global economy into recession this year,” J.P. Morgan said in a note to clients after the tariff announcement.

“Recession risks will likely rise,” Deutsche Bank added.

U.S. stocks plunged on Thursday in the first trading session after Trump unveiled the new tariffs.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeted 1,679 points, or nearly 4%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq declined almost 6%.

The S&P 500 tumbled 4.8%, marking its worst trading day since 2020.

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(NEW YORK) — Stock markets continued their slide on Friday morning, as the shockwaves of President Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs continued to reverberate around the globe.

U.S. stock futures slipped further, with Dow Jones futures plummeting nearly 1,100 points — or 2.68% — on Friday morning. S&P 500 futures slid 137.5 points or 2.53% and NASDAQ futures were down 510.25 points or 2.73%.

Global markets gave early signals of the difficult to come on Friday. Japan’s Nikkei index lost 3.5% on Friday, while the broader Japanese Topix index fell 4.45%.

In South Korea, the KOSPI index was down 1.7%, with the country grappling with both Trump’s tariffs and the news that South Korea’s Constitutional Court upheld the impeachment of President Yoon Suk Yeol.

Indian investors joined the sell-off on Friday, with the Nifty 50 and BSE Sensex indexes both falling more than 1%. India’s stock markets had previously performed better than others thanks to lower tariffs than competitors like China, Indonesia and Vietnam.

Australia’s S&P/ASX, meanwhile, continued its slide into Friday with another 2% drop taking the index to an 8-month low.

In Europe, too, stock markets fell upon opening. Britain’s FTSE 100 index dropped more than 1%, Germany’s DAX fell 0.75%, France’s CAC lost 0.9% and Spain’s IBEX slipped 1.4%.

Trump’s Wednesday announcement of tariffs on nearly all American trade partners sent U.S. and foreign markets alike into a tailspin.

All three major American stock markets closed down on Thursday, marking their worst day since June 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The NASDAQ fell 6%, the S&P 500 4.8% and the Dow Jones nearly 4%.

Major companies were among those struggling. Nike plummeted 14% while Apple fell 9%. E-commerce giant Amazon slid nearly 9%.

Shares fell for each of the other so-called “Magnificent Seven,” a group of large tech firms that helped drive stock market gains in recent years.

Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, dropped nearly 9%. Chipmaker Nvidia slid 7%.

Tesla, the electric carmaker led by Trump-advisor Elon Musk, declined 5%.

Shares of U.S. retailers that depend largely on imported products also tumbled, with Dollar Tree down 13% and Five Below seeing 27% losses..

ABC News’ Leah Sarnoff, Max Zahn, Victor Ordoñez and Zunaira Zaki contributed to this report.

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(NEW YORK) — Key foreign stock markets continued their slide after opening on Friday morning, as the shockwaves of President Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs continued to reverberate around the globe.

Japan’s Nikkei index lost 3.5% on Friday, while the broader Japanese Topix index fell 4.45%.

In South Korea, the KOSPI index was down 1.7%, with the country grappling with both Trump’s tariffs and the news that South Korea’s Constitutional Court upheld the impeachment of President Yoon Suk Yeol.

Indian investors joined the sell-off on Friday, with the Nifty 50 and BSE Sensex indexes both falling more than 1%. India’s stock markets had previously performed better than others thanks to lower tariffs than competitors like China, Indonesia and Vietnam.

Australia’s S&P/ASX, meanwhile, continued its slide into Friday with another 2% drop taking the index to an 8-month low.

In Europe, too, stock markets fell upon opening. Britain’s FTSE 100 index dropped more than 1%, Germany’s DAX fell 0.75%, France’s CAC lost 0.9% and Spain’s IBEX slipped 1.4%.

Trump’s Wednesday announcement of tariffs on nearly all American trade partners sent U.S. and foreign markets alike into a tailspin.

All three major American stock markets closed down on Thursday, marking their worst day since June 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The NASDAQ fell 6%, the S&P 500 4.8% and the Dow Jones nearly 4%

Major companies were among those struggling. Nike plummeted 14% while Apple fell 9%. E-commerce giant Amazon slid nearly 9%.

Shares fell for each of the other so-called “Magnificent Seven,” a group of large tech firms that helped drive stock market gains in recent years.

Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, dropped nearly 9%. Chipmaker Nvidia slid 7%.

Tesla, the electric carmaker led by Trump-advisor Elon Musk, declined 5%.

Shares of U.S. retailers that depend largely on imported products also tumbled, with Dollar Tree down 13% and Five Below seeing 27% losses..

Stock futures suggested more pain for investors. Dow Jones, S&P 500 and NASDAQ futures were all down around 1% on Friday morning.

ABC News’ Leah Sarnoff, Max Zahn, Victor Ordoñez and Zunaira Zaki contributed to this report.

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(NEW YORK) — The Kentucky bourbon industry said it is reeling from retaliatory actions taken by Canada and the European Union in response to President Donald Trump’s trade war against both global regions.

More than 90% of the world’s bourbon is from Kentucky, which advocates say is now jeopardized.

Last month, the EU announced it plans to impose a 50% tariff on all American whiskey in response to Trump’s decision to bring back tariffs on overseas steel and aluminum imports. Trump said on social media that he would retaliate by levying 200% tariffs on all wines, champagne and other alcoholic products imported from the region should the EU move forward with its spirits tariff. The EU will make its final decision on April 13.

Meanwhile, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Ottawa is imposing 25% tariffs on U.S. imports in response to Trump’s measures. In addition, the government-run Liquor Control Board of Ontario ordered all retailers, bars and restaurants to stop selling American products. The board reported that U.S. alcohol sold within the province accounts for “annual sales of up to $965 million,” representing “more than 3,600 products from 35 US states.”

New Brunswick and Quebec both passed similar restrictions by ordering all American spirits brands removed from retail shelves.

The import tariffs, Trump wrote, “will be great for the wine and champagne businesses in the U.S.”

Chris Swonger, president and CEO of the Distilled Spirits Council, a Washington-based trade group, disagrees, telling ABC News that rising tariffs on both sides are “catastrophic.”

“Our industry is collateral damage as the result” of the trade war, he said. “Which is unfortunate because American consumers love Canadian whiskey, and European consumers love American whiskey and vice versa.” Likewise, the Kentucky Distillers’ Association said, “retaliatory measures against bourbon harm these markets and jeopardize growth for years to come.”

Canada was the largest importer of Kentucky-made spirits, including bourbon, before the current trade war. In 2023, the state exported $43 million worth of whiskey to Canada, according to the latest data on the Canadian government’s website. Kentucky imported more than $40 million in whiskey from Canada that same year.

The issue is uniting Kentucky lawmakers from both parties. Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear and Republican Senators Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul have all blasted the tariffs, saying they will hurt jobs and sink the economy of the state.

“From bourbon distillers to car manufacturers to makers of fences to the builders of homes, to our farmers, nobody in Kentucky is coming up to me and say, ‘please put tariffs on things.’ We need to back away from this,” Paul said.

Swonger said the spirits industry has flourished because of a zero-for-zero tariff agreement among 51 countries around the world, which has allowed 3,1000 distillers to grow within the U.S. In Kentucky, the trade war will likely be hardest for small craft distilleries, many of which could “shut down trying to export to markets” impacted by the tariffs.

“Building a brand takes time. If you’re a little craft distillery going to an international market, it takes time and effort to talk to buyers. A massive tariff will shut that down,” he said.

That’s the worry of Victor Yarbrough, CEO of Brough Brothers Bourbon in Kentucky, which opened in 2020 and became the first African American-owned distillery in the state. Yarbrough said 2025 was planned as “a year of growth and expansion” for his company, which meant opening a second distillery and, for the first time, exporting to other countries, including Canada.

He told ABC News he was in negotiations with suppliers in New Brunswick in January, “when the tariff situation came out of nowhere.”

“It suspended our deal indefinitely,” as a result, Yarbrough said.

The tariffs imposed by the U.S., followed by the retaliatory tariffs from export countries, “shuttered our ability to go into these markets,” Yarbrough said. “And they’re huge markets. Ultimately, it reduces our ability to sell our product abroad.

He said in response that his company will focus on the 27 U.S. states where his product is not yet available. He is also looking at countries like Brazil and Colombia where the tariff war has not yet hit. The uncertainty, for him, is that that could change.

“I’m just the small bourbon producer being caught in the middle of it,” he said. “I hope we come to accord on both sides.”

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(NEW YORK) — U.S. stocks suffered major losses on Thursday at close of the first trading session after President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs announcement.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeted 1,679 points, or nearly 4%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq declined almost 6%.

The S&P 500 tumbled 4.8%, marking its worst trading day since 2020.

The selloff hammered shares of some major multinational corporations with supply chains abroad.

Nike plummeted 14%, while Apple fell 9%. E-commerce giant Amazon slid nearly 9%.

Shares fell for each of the other so-called “Magnificent Seven,” a group of large tech firms that helped drive stock market gains in recent years.

Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, dropped nearly 9%. Chipmaker Nvidia slid 7%.

Tesla, the electric carmaker led by Trump-advisor Elon Musk, declined 5%.

Shares of U.S. retailers that depend largely on imported products also tumbled, with Dollar Tree down 13% and Five Below seeing 27% losses.

While Trump said the tariffs would free the U.S. from dependence on foreign goods, fears of a deepened international trade war appeared to influence the stock market reaction.

During the event at the White House on Wednesday, Trump unveiled a sweeping set of baseline tariffs on all trading partners and what he described as “kind reciprocal” tariffs on nations he claimed were the worst offenders in trade relations with the U.S.

“My fellow Americans, this is Liberation Day,” Trump said from the Rose Garden. “April 2, 2025, will forever be remembered as the day American industry was reborn, the day America’s destiny was reclaimed and the day that we began to make America wealthy again,” he said.

The president announced the measures would include a minimum baseline tariff of 10% on all trading partners and, further, more targeted punitive levies on certain countries, including China, the European Union and Taiwan.

Trump held up a chart with a list of nations and what the new U.S. tariffs against them will be.

At the top was China, which Trump said was set to be hit with a 34% tariff rate as he claimed it charged the United States 67%.

The 34% reciprocal rate for China is in addition to a previous 20% tariff Trump slapped on the nation — bringing the effective tariff rate on one of the U.S.’s biggest trading partners to 54% total.

While the longstanding effects of Trump’s newly minted tariffs stand to be seen, some experts told ABC News ahead of Wednesday that the measures could threaten economic growth and employment since duties slapped on imports risk increasing costs for businesses that rely on raw materials from abroad.

“If both businesses and consumers start to worry and pull back their spending, that is what can tip the U.S. over into a recession,” Kara Reynolds, an economist at American University, previously told ABC News.

Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, described the tariffs as “the fodder for an economic downturn.”

ABC News’ Max Zahn contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(NEW YORK) — U.S. stocks plunged in early trading on Thursday, just hours after President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs announcement touched off threats of countermeasures from foreign leaders.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeted 1,100 points, or 2.6%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq declined 4.3%.

The S&P 500 tumbled 3.3%, setting it on pace for its worst trading day in more than two years.

The selloff hammered shares of some major multinational corporations with supply chains abroad.

Nike plummeted 11%, while Apple fell nearly 8%. E-commerce giant Amazon slid 6%.

Shares fell for each of the other so-called “Magnificent Seven,” a group of large tech firms that helped drive stock market gains in recent years.

Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, dropped 7%. Chipmaker Nvidia slid 4.5%.

Tesla, the electric carmaker led by Trump-advisor Elon Musk, declined 4%.

Shares of U.S. retailers that depend largely on imported products also tumbled, with Dollar Tree down 11% and Five Below seeing 25% losses.

While Trump said the tariffs would free the U.S. from dependence on foreign goods, fears of a deepened international trade war appeared to influence the stock market reaction.

During the event at the White House on Wednesday, Trump unveiled a sweeping set of baseline tariffs on all trading partners and what he described as “kind reciprocal” tariffs on nations he claimed were the worst offenders in trade relations with the U.S.

“My fellow Americans, this is Liberation Day,” Trump said from the Rose Garden. “April 2, 2025, will forever be remembered as the day American industry was reborn, the day America’s destiny was reclaimed and the day that we began to make America wealthy again,” he said.

The president announced the measures would include a minimum baseline tariff of 10% on all trading partners and, further, more targeted punitive levies on certain countries, including China, the European Union and Taiwan.

Trump held up a chart with a list of nations and what the new U.S. tariffs against them will be.

At the top was China, which Trump said was set to be hit with a 34% tariff rate as he claimed it charged the United States 67%.

The 34% reciprocal rate for China is in addition to a previous 20% tariff Trump slapped on the nation — bringing the effective tariff rate on one of the U.S.’s biggest trading partners to 54% total.

While the longstanding effects of Trump’s newly minted tariffs stand to be seen, some experts told ABC News ahead of Wednesday that the measures could threaten economic growth and employment since duties slapped on imports risk increasing costs for businesses that rely on raw materials from abroad.

“If both businesses and consumers start to worry and pull back their spending, that is what can tip the U.S. over into a recession,” Kara Reynolds, an economist at American University, previously told ABC News.

Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, described the tariffs as “the fodder for an economic downturn.”

ABC News’ Max Zahn contributed to this report.

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