Why did Trump pause the tariffs? The bond market rebelled — here's what that means.

Even as stocks plunged in reaction to his administration's sweeping tariffs, President Trump expressed confidence in his trade policies, saying last week that "markets are going to boom." But by Wednesday, a collective thumb's down to the tariffs by bond investors had given Mr. Trump pause. 

With U.S. and global financial market tumbling, he abruptly suspended his administration's "reciprocal tariffs" on dozens of other countries for 90 days, acknowledging that the bond market was "getting a little queasy."

Mr. Trump's about-face was by no means the first time a sitting American president had blinked in the face of bond investors expressing alarm over U.S. policies they viewed as fiscally reckless and harmful to their portfolios. In their first terms, both Bill Clinton and Barack Obama also found themselves knocked back when the bond market rebelled at the cost of some of their strategic priorities.