(Reuters) – Global investors are close to getting some clarity on the Trump administration’s tariff plans on Wednesday, but with little detail on what to expect, financial markets remain on edge.

U.S. President Donald Trump has for weeks pegged April 2 as “Liberation Day”, when he plans to impose an array of new tariffs that could upend the global trade system.

Tariffs also have big implications for corporate earnings, global growth, inflation and Federal Reserve interest rate policy.

Investors had kicked off the year with high hopes for pro-growth policies from the Trump administration but have been spooked by a barrage of tariff-related headlines.

While investors broadly agree that Wednesday’s long-awaited announcement could be pivotal for the near-term outlook for global financial markets, they are unsure about which way prices will swing and what will come next as negotiations could be protracted.

“I can’t recall a situation where the stakes were this high and yet the outcome was so unpredictable,” said Steve Sosnick, chief strategist at Interactive Brokers. “The devil is going to be in the details and nobody knows the details.”

The White House confirmed on Tuesday that Trump will impose new tariffs on Wednesday, without providing details about the size and scope of trade barriers that have businesses, consumers and investors fretting about an intensifying global trade war.

White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said reciprocal tariffs on countries that impose duties on U.S. goods would take effect once Trump announces them, while a 25% tariff on auto imports will take effect on April 3.

Lack of clarity on whether there will be one flat tariff rate for all imports or whether the administration takes a more fragmented approach has made modeling the ultimate impact of the tariffs on earnings, growth and inflation a daunting challenge.

“Ideally, we just get one number and then we can figure out the downstream impact,” said Sonu Varghese, global macro strategist at Carson Group.

“But my fear is that we won’t get that, or even if we get one number that will be subject to negotiations,” he said.

Wednesday’s announcement feels particularly crucial after the S&P 500 confirmed a correction, a drop of 10% from a recent high, in mid-March. The index was last down about 8% from its February record high.

“We are at a very tenuous spot, being at the bottom of a corrective trading range … that leaves us poised for either a very sharp bounce or a scary breakdown,” Sosnick said.

Heightened uncertainty over the tariff news and potential market reaction lifted the Cboe Volatility Index (.VIX), opens new tab – an options-based measure of investor anxiety – to a more than two-week high of 24.80 on Monday. The index finished Tuesday at 22.77.

“I think the market is really holding its breath,” said Mark Spindel, chief investment officer at Potomac River Capital LLC, who expects the so-called fear gauge to climb toward 30, a level associated with a high degree of risk aversion.

Traders in the options market were braced for a roughly 1.3% swing in the S&P 500, on Wednesday.

Tariff woes have pushed Japan’s blue-chip Nikkei stock index to its lowest since September(.N225), opens new tab, and taken the edge off a stunning rally in European stocks (.STOXX), opens new tab.

European markets opened broadly lower on Wednesday.

PLAY DEFENSE

The tariffs announcement could also spur sharp moves in the dollar, euro and safe-haven gold.

U.S. manufacturing contracted in March after growing for two straight months, while a measure of inflation at the factory gate jumped to the highest level in nearly three years as anxiety rose over import tariffs, survey data out on Tuesday showed.

Recent tepid consumer spending numbers have raised the specter of lackluster economic growth and higher inflation. That could put the Fed, which paused its easing cycle in January to monitor the impact of tariffs, in an uncomfortable position.

For Anthony Saglimbene, chief market strategist at Ameriprise Financial, the risk is that Wednesday’s announcement will offer no clarity on tariffs.

“The market to some extent has discounted the cumulative negative effect of tariffs on potential economic growth and corporate profitability,” he said.

“The negative reaction in the market would be if the details of those tariffs still leave open a lot of questions about what it includes, who it includes.”

Investors flummoxed by the wide range of possible outcomes from Wednesday’s news would do well to not put all their eggs in one basket, analysts said.

“The bottom line is in the face of uncertainty that’s flirting at levels that we haven’t seen since the pandemic or the financial crisis, you need to be diversified,” said Jack Ablin, chief investment officer at Cresset Capital.

(Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump was poised to impose sweeping new reciprocal tariffs on global trading partners on Wednesday, upending decades of rules-based trade, threatening cost increases and likely drawing retaliation from all sides.

Details of Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariff plans were still being formulated and closely held ahead of a White House Rose Garden announcement ceremony scheduled for 4 p.m. Eastern Time (2000 GMT).

The new duties are due to take effect immediately after Trump announces them, White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said on Tuesday, while a separate 25% global tariff on auto imports will take effect on April 3.

Trump for weeks has said his reciprocal tariff plans are a move to equalize generally lower U.S. tariff rates with those charged by other countries and counteract their non-tariff barriers that disadvantage U.S. exports. But the format of the duties was unclear amid reports that Trump was considering a 20% universal tariff.

A former Trump first-term trade official told Reuters that Trump was more likely to impose comprehensive tariff rates on individual countries at somewhat lower levels.

The former official added that the number of countries facing these duties would likely exceed the approximately 15 countries that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent had previously said the administration was focused on due to their high trade surpluses with the U.S.

Bessent told Republican House of Representatives lawmakers on Tuesday that the reciprocal tariffs represent a “cap” of the highest U.S. tariff level that countries will face and could go down if they meet the administration’s demands, according to Republican Representative Kevin Hern.

Ryan Majerus, a former Commerce Department official, said that a universal tariff would be easier to implement given a constrained timeline and may generate more revenue, but individual reciprocal tariffs would be more tailored to countries’ unfair trade practices.

“Either way, the impacts of today’s announcement will be significant across a wide range of industries,” said Majerus, a partner at the King and Spalding law firm.

STACKING TARIFFS

In just over 10 weeks since taking office, the Republican president has already imposed new 20% duties on all imports from China over fentanyl and fully restored 25% duties on steel and aluminum, extending these to nearly $150 billion worth of downstream products. A month-long reprieve for most Canadian and Mexican goods from his 25% fentanyl-related tariffs also are due to expire on Wednesday.

Administration officials have said that all of Trump’s tariffs, including prior rates, are stacking, so a Mexican-built car previously charged 2.5% to enter the U.S. would be subject to both the fentanyl tariffs and the autos sectoral tariffs, for a 52.5% tariff rate — plus any reciprocal tariff Trump may impose on Mexican goods.

Growing uncertainty over the duties is eroding investor, consumer and business confidence in ways that could slow activity and drive up prices.

Economists at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta said a recent survey showed corporate financial chiefs expected tariffs to push their prices higher this year while cutting into hiring and growth.

Rattled investors have sold stocks aggressively for more than a month, wiping nearly $5 trillion off the value of U.S. stocks since mid-February. Wall Street ended mixed on Tuesday with investors stuck in limbo awaiting details of Trump’s announcement on Wednesday.

RETALIATORY MEASURES

Trading partners from the European Union to Canada and Mexico have vowed to respond with retaliatory tariffs and other countermeasures, even as some have sought to negotiate with the White House.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum spoke on Tuesday about Canada’s plan to “fight unjustified trade actions” by the U.S., Carney’s office said.

“With challenging times ahead, Prime Minister Carney and President Sheinbaum emphasized the importance of safeguarding North American competitiveness while respecting the sovereignty of each nation,” Carney’s office said in a statement.

U.S. companies say a “Buy Canadian” movement is already making it harder for their products to reach that country’s shelves.

Trump has argued that American workers and manufacturers have been hurt for decades by free-trade deals that have lowered barriers to global commerce and fueled the growth of a $3 trillion U.S. market for imported goods.

The explosion of imports has come with what Trump sees as a glaring downside: Massively imbalanced trade between the U.S. and the world, with a goods trade deficit that exceeds $1.2 trillion.

Economists warn his remedy – hefty tariffs – would raise prices at home and abroad and hammer the global economy. A 20% tariff on top of those already imposed would cost the average U.S. household at least $3,400, according to the Yale University Budget Lab.