It was the 73-minute recession, all thanks to Donald Trump’s about-face on the sweeping tariffs that had markets in turmoil all week.

As the United States and China slid into a full-blown trade war, economists at Goldman Sachs were forecasting the worst. Telling clients that the White House was “unlikely to quickly reverse most of the new tariffs”, the Wall Street giant’s economics team put the chance of a recession for the world’s largest economy within the next 12 months at 65 per cent.