US markets jittery ahead of Supreme Court’s Trump tariff review:Dismal job growth, high inflation put a question mark on Washington’s policies

The US Supreme Court is all set to deliver judgment on the US President Donald Trump’s presidential powers regarding the implementation of tariff policies. In the run up to the judgment day, America’s stock markets have fallen in the last few days in anticipation of the verdict. The SP 500 has depleted 2% in the last 5 days. On Tuesday 05 November 2025, the barometer slid over 1% to settle at 6,771.55 points. While, the tech heavy Nasdaq Composite has dwindled nearly 3% in the last five days. On Tuesday, the stock gauge lost 638 points to close at 23,348.64 points. Similarly, Dow Jones Industrial Average also closed negatively at 47,085.24 points on just the day before the Supreme Court verdict date. The ‘Trump Tariffs’ were initially announced in April 2025 but later on the trade policy was deferred to a later date. Nowadays, the policy is in effect in full flow. How US’ GDP has fared at backdrop of implementation of ‘Trump Tariffs’? The America’s economy had expanded at a rate of 3.8% in the quarterly period (Q2 FY26) during which the tariff policy was initially announced (April 2025). In the quarterly period prior to that (ie in Q1 FY26), the US economy had actually contracted by 0.6%. So, with the announcement of the new import duty policies, the country’s economy had actually bounce backed (at least on paper). But the catch is that, the top Republican had actually postponed the implementation of the new tariffs which only came into effect in the next quarter. Therefor the actual impact on the GDP figures would come out when September quarter stats would be published. Albeit, even on annual basis, the economic growth rate had surged to 3.8% in Q2 FY26 from 3.6% in Q2 FY25. Unemployment: The unemployment has been on an upward trend since a long time in America or for that matter in most of the economies in the world. But it is the rate of increase in unemployment which keeps falling or rising. The unemployment rate has continuously surged in the US in July and August. In the former month, the jobless rate was 4.2% and in the latter it came in at 4.3%. An year ago in August 2024, the unemployment had surged at a rate of 4.2%. So, off-late, the unemployment is growing at a faster rate than the GDP during the aforesaid period. Inflation: As far as the inflation figures are concerned, these are the main pain points for the US government. In last one year, the rate of growth of prices in the country has seen a considerable spike rising by 3% in September 2025 from as compared to 2.3% in September 2024. According to official data, America’s inflation has only surged in last four months running into September 2025. ​