The Australian sharemarket closed lower on Friday, ending a volatile week on a sour note as concerns about Donald Trump’s unsettling policy shifts and deteriorating trade relations between the world’s two biggest economies took hold.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 dropped 0.8% on Friday to 7,646.5 points after a sell-off on Wall Street overnight.

Investors have had to contend with wild swings this week triggered by changes to the US tariff regime, with share prices pushed around by extreme bouts of relief and fear.

The Australian share market has lost about 3.6% of its value in the aftermath of Trump’s “liberation day” tariffs announcement last week.

While some nations have enjoyed a reprieve from their supersized tariffs, Australia’s position, along with that of the UK and New Zealand, is unchanged given it remains subject to the US “baseline” 10% charge.

The White House clarified overnight that total tariffs on China had been raised to 145% since Trump took office.

Health technology company CSL recorded a steep fall on Friday to end the week down 6%, after traders reacted to Trump’s threat to remove tariff exemptions for Australian pharmaceutical products.

Energy and mining companies were also generally lower, amid concerns that a tariff-hit global economy may require less resources.

Goldminers, though, continued to recover value and were among the biggest winners on Friday. Australia’s gold exports have so far been exempted from US tariffs, and the precious metal is considered a safe haven during volatile times.

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A slump on Friday capped a volatile week for traders as investors came to terms with the worsening trade war between the US and China.

“The relief rally following a 90-day pause on higher US tariffs was replaced by a realisation that the current US trade policy with a 145% tariff on China is still going to weaken the US economy significantly,” Westpac analyst Mantas Vanagas said.

The Reserve Bank of Australia governor, Michele Bullock, said on Thursday night an uncertain and rocky path lay ahead and that “financial market and economic volatility can be expected as this process unfolds”.

Markets continue to expect the RBA to cut rates at each of the next four meetings, though Bullock gave no indication the bank was in a rush to ease rates.

The Australian dollar recovered significant ground in recent days, hovering at the US62c mark late on Friday after threatening to plunge below the US59c barrier earlier this week.