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More than 50 countries have reached out to the White House to begin trade talks, a top economic adviser to U.S. President Donald Trump said on Sunday as U.S. officials sought to defend sweeping new tariffs that have unleashed global turmoil. During an interview on ABC News' 'This Week,' U.S. National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett denied that the tariffs were part of a strategy by Trump to crash financial markets to pressure the U.S. Federal Reserve to cut interest rates. He said there were would be no "political coercion" of the central bank. In a Truth Social post on Friday, Trump shared a video that suggested his tariffs aimed to hammer the stock market on purpose in a bid to force lower interest rates. In a separate interview on NBC News's Meet the Press, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent downplayed the stock market drop and said there was "no reason" to anticipate a recession based on the tariffs. Trump jolted economies around the world after he announced broad tariffs on U.S. imports on Wednesday, triggering retaliatory levies from China and sparking fears of a globe trade war and recession. On Sunday morning talk shows, top Trump officials sought to portray the tariffs as a savvy repositioning of the U.S. in the global trade order and the economic disruptions as a short-term fallout. U.S. stocks have tumbled by around 10% in the two days since Trump announced a new global tariff regime that was more aggressive than analysts and investors had been anticipating. It is a drop that market analysts and large investors have blamed on Trump's aggressive push on tariffs, which most economists and the head of the U.S. Federal Reserve believe risk stoking inflation and damaging economic growth. Tariff-stunned markets face another week of potential tariff turmoil, with fallout from Trump's sweeping import levies keeping investors on edge after the worst week for U.S. stocks since the onset of the COVID-19 crisis five years ago. Hassett told ABC News' 'This Week' that Trump's tariffs had so far driven "more than 50" countries to contact the White House to begin trade talks. Taiwan's President Lai Ching-te on Sunday offered zero tariffs as the basis for talks with the U.S., pledging to remove trade barriers rather than imposing reciprocal measures and saying Taiwanese companies will raise their U.S. investments. Unlike other economists, Hassett said he did not expect a big hit to consumers because exporters were likely to lower prices. Bessent told NBC News he did not anticipate a recession based on the tariffs, citing stronger-than-anticipated U.S. jobs growth. "We could see from the jobs number on Friday, that was well above expectations, that we are moving forward, so I see no reason that we have to price in a recession," Bessent said.

The long-anticipated reciprocal tariffs were finally unveiled by President Trump this week, jolting global asset classes—from equities and bonds to currencies and commodities. The U.S. administration introduced a baseline import tariff of 10% on all countries.India, however, faced a relatively milder tariff rate of 26%, which positioned its equity markets to outperform several Asian peers. Despite this, Indian benchmark indices ended the week 2.6% lower, largely dragged down by an 8.4% plunge in the IT index. The sharp decline in IT stocks reflects mounting fears of a U.S. recession, a critical market for the sector’s revenue stream.Between March 28 and April 4, both the Nifty and Sensex indices recorded a decline of 2.6%. The Nifty fell from 23,519.4 to 22,904.5, while the Sensex dropped from 77,415 to 75,365 during the same period.In such a market, analyst Preeti K. Chabra, Founder of Trade Delta, interacted with ET Markets regarding the outlook on Nifty and Bank Nifty, along with index strategies for the upcoming week. Following are the edited excerpts from her chat:Despite weak global cues and tariff-related jitters, the Indian market tried to show resilience and held key levels. However, on Friday, it took a downturn. How do you now interpret the price action from an options market perspective—do you see further downside?With the implementation of the 27% reciprocal tariff rate on imports from India, we are better placed than most of our competitive Asian peers like Bangladesh and Vietnam. Currently, the market is not following any technical indicators and is completely news-driven, as a lot of structural changes are happening with new tariffs coming into place worldwide. The global supply chain is going to change, and there are a lot of unknowns. I believe India is well positioned, and this could be an opportunity for us to better compete with China, where the tariff impact is comparatively higher. The day after the tariff was announced, on April 3, the Indian market didn’t sell off and was holding firm, which gave us an indication that we would pass through this event. But on April 4, we gave away the important recent low—23,132—and the Fibonacci retracement level of 23,141, which we had been holding since March 21. I would like to repeat that this is currently a news-driven market, and sentiment can change at any time.The 200-DEMA is emerging as strong resistance. What kind of option strategies would you recommend for Nifty now?Nifty is currently trading in a downward-trending channel. We see further downside as global news remains negative, with GIFT trading around 22,343—a further decline of 2.68%. Since the market structure is now negative, we advise a ‘sell-on-rise’ strategy. Given the high volatility, naked positions can hit stop-losses very easily, so a strategy with a fixed reward-to-risk ratio is the way forward. We can consider a Bear Put Spread or a Bear Put Butterfly to take advantage of the bearish sentiment.Bank Nifty defended its 200-DSMA and ended with a bullish candle.Do you see the potential for a breakout, and how should traders approach it using Bank Nifty options?Bank Nifty is currently trading in a downward-sloping channel, connecting the high of 53,888 on December 5 and 52,063 on March 25. For Bank Nifty to turn positive on a bigger time frame, it has to close above this channel. A breakout above 52,063 will place Bank Nifty in a comfortable positive zone.We also see consolidation happening in Bank Nifty—a rectangular pattern formation between March 24 and April 4—and any breach of 50,742 on the lower side will be negative for Bank Nifty.So, on the upside, 52,063, and on the downside, 50,742 are important levels to watch. Traders can consider a Bull Call Spread to take advantage of a bullish stance or a Bear Put Spread to benefit from bearish sentiment.The broader market outperformed, with both Nifty Midcap 100 and Smallcap 100 closing in the green. But a reversal was witnessed on Friday. What’s your take there, and any bets?In the mid-cap and small-cap space, we are focusing on the following names as we see upside in them in the near future—Colgate, Marico, Max Financial Services Ltd, Ramco Cements, Torrent Power, GMR Airports, Paytm, and PNB Housing.Pharma and PSU banks seem to be leading the market. Do you see sustained bullish positioning in these sectors that options traders can capitalize on?The pharma sector was excluded from the individual reciprocal duties on the day of the announcement, and we saw a huge run-up in pharma stocks. However, on Friday, following forthcoming announcements about severe tariffs on this sector, we saw a sharp decline. At this moment, the pharma sector is news-driven, and sentiment changes as news flows in.The PSU Bank Index is holding up and performing better than other sectors. We are tracking Bank of Baroda and SBI in this space.IT and Auto were under pressure due to U.S. slowdown fears and tariff impact. Do you see further downside risk in these sectors, and what’s the best way to play them?The auto sector is not significantly impacted by the new tariff rates, as exports to the U.S. are minimal, and the sector is exempt from any additional duties beyond those implemented on March 26. We suggest staying away from stocks where the tariff impact is higher, such as Motherson, Tata Motors, and Bharat Forge. In this sector, we prefer TVS Motor.The IT sector will not face direct tariff consequences, but weaker U.S. GDP growth could slow demand. Nifty IT is underperforming, and until we see a technical shift in momentum, we would avoid taking any bullish stance in this space.We saw strong long build-up in names like PNB Housing, Patanjali, and IDFC First Bank. Would you recommend any bullish positions?PNB Housing is looking positive, and we see resistance at ₹977. A Bull Call Spread can be made by buying the 940 CE and selling the 980 CE.Patanjali has resistance in the ₹1885–1900 zone. Once it breaks out of this range, a Bull Call Spread can be considered by buying the 1900 CE and selling the 2000 CE.IDFC First Bank made an open high of ₹60.5 on Friday and is facing resistance around ₹60.9. RSI has turned negative, so it can be avoided for now.Short build-ups were observed in counters like Jindal Steel, Persistent Systems, and Hindustan Zinc. How can options traders structure bearish bets while managing risk?Jindal Steel looks weak. A Bear Put Spread can be implemented by buying the 850 PE and selling the 820 PE.Persistent has support at ₹4400. A Bear Put Spread with a 4600 PE buy and 4400 PE sell is advisable.For Hindustan Zinc, to capitalize on bearish sentiment, a Bear Put Spread with a 430 PE buy and 400 PE sell is recommended.With Trump's 26% tariff announcement and fears of a global slowdown, how should options traders hedge against event risk in the coming sessions—through index straddles, VIX-based strategies, or calendar spreads?India VIX, also known as the fear index, is trading at 13.75, which, in my opinion, is on the lower side considering the domestic and global volatility we are currently seeing. I expect VIX to increase in the coming sessions. Hence, long butterflies or long debit spreads are advisable. In the current scenario, it is always wise to hedge overnight positions due to heightened gap-up and gap-down risks.Any sectors you wish to bring into the limelight?I remain positive on the banking sector. Even in the current market scenario, Bank Nifty appears stronger and more resilient than any other sector. Moreover, in the upcoming RBI policy meeting scheduled for April 7–9, 2025, there’s an expectation of a 25 bps cut in the repo rate, bringing it down to 6.25%—the first cut in nearly five years. This would provide a strong boost to the banking sector and support broader economic growth.Any stocks within those sectors?In private sector banks, we see further upside in HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank. Among PSU banks, we are positive on Bank of Baroda and SBI.(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of The Economic Times)

BMW Group India is unfazed by the prospect of Tesla entering the electric vehicle market here and feels it will help grow the segment, according to its Managing Director and CEO Vikram Pawah. The group, which sold a total of 1,249 units of electric cars in India across two brands -- BMW and MINI -- has already sold 646 units in the first quarter of 2025 and is keeping its forecast of 15 per cent of its total sales in India coming from EVs, Pawah told PTI in an interview. "I think the market should grow. Anytime there's more competition, we've seen that the market grows," he said when asked how BMW is looking at how the EV market will shape up with Tesla entering India. When asked about competition from the American electric car maker, Pawah said,"In all the markets in the world, we coexist. We all coexist and you can see last year figures worldwide, we were the ones who were growing. We grew in electric sales worldwide." Not many manufacturers can talk about growth in electric vehicles, he asserted. In 2024, the BMW Group sold a total of 4,26,594 fully-electric vehicles and achieved BEV-sales growth of 13.5 per cent. Both BMW and MINI brands posted double-digit BEV growth, with sales of 3,68,523 units (11.6 per cent) and 56,181 units (24.3 per cent), respectively. In February, Tesla opened recruitments for various roles in India, including business operations analyst and customer support specialist, in what could be a precursor for the company's entry into the country. On BMW Group's EV growth prospects in India, Pawah said at present it accounts for 17 per cent of total sales. The group had reported a 7 per cent increase in its car sales in India at 3,914 units in the January-March period of 2025. "Our target was 15 per cent of total sales to come from EVs in 2025 and we will exceed it. If we get to 20 per cent, let's see but 15 per cent was our target. We are happy with that and we are on track," Pawah noted. With BMW slated to launch one of its best selling models, X3 in the second quarter, Pawah said the proportion of internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles is expected to grow and hence the company was setting a target of 15 per cent sales from EVs in 2025.