Big-name multinationals right down to niche e-commerce players last week cut sales targets, warned of job cuts and reviewed their business plans, while major economies revised down growth prospects amid bleak data read-outs.

Reports suggested President Trump's tariffs were increasingly clogging up the world’s economic wheels previously greased by predictable and free trade.

During a first 100 days event underscoring some $8 trillion in investments in the U.S. economy since his second inauguration, Trump appealed to the public for “time” before apportioning responsibility to his predecessor, former President Joe Biden, for current economic conditions.