Trump fumes against the world as his tariffs come up short

A look at the day ahead in European and global markets

By Gregor Stuart Hunter, Asia Finance & Markets Breaking News Correspondent

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Is this the Art of the Deal? U.S. President Donald Trump has warned trade partners not to "play games" by backing out of recently agreed trade deals after the Supreme Court struck down his emergency tariffs.

But some foreign governments just want to know if the terms they originally negotiated are still good. 

U.S. President Donald Trump attends a press briefing at the White House, following the Supreme Court's ruling that Trump had exceeded his authority when he imposed tariffs, in Washington, D.C., U.S., February 20, 2026. REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz/File Photo 

Trump is expected to "come out swinging" during his annual State of the Union address later on Tuesday after the tariff setback, and may take aim at some of the Supreme Court Justices seated in the chamber.

But governments in Asia have questions. Japan wants to know whether the nation's treatment under a new U.S. tariff regime will be as favourable as an agreement reached between the two sides last year. And Taiwan's government is seeking assurances from the U.S. that the beneficial terms it has already agreed do not change.

Not to be outdone by the trade drama in Washington, China on Tuesday prohibited the export of dual-use items to 20 Japanese entities that it says have military links, aimed at curbing Japan's "remilitarisation".

Markets in Japan and China largely shrugged off the dispute, gaining a boost from lower U.S. tariffs as they reopened after local holidays and caught up on the trade news from Friday. The Nikkei 225 and CSI 300 both tacked on more than 1%.

Elsewhere in Asia, markets stabilised after the selloff on Wall Street on Monday that some analysts attributed to a "doomsday" analysis from Citrini Research released earlier this week which presented a vision of the havoc that AI could wreak on the global economy in the years to come. U.S. S&P 500 e-mini futures recovered, rising 0.3%.

Meanwhile, manufacturers in the AI supply chain propelled benchmarks in Taiwan and South Korea to fresh highs, sending MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan to a new record. 

In early European trade, pan-region futures were last up 0.3%, German DAX futures gained 0.2% and FTSE futures were down 0.1%.

Graphics are produced by Reuters.