TikTok on Friday was hours from a deadline to find a non-Chinese owner or face a ban in the United States.The hugely popular video-sharing app, which has more than 170 million American users, is under threat from a US law that passed overwhelmingly last year and orders TikTok to split from its Chinese owner ByteDance or get shut down in the United States.US President Donald Trump on Thursday said his administration was “very close” to a deal to find a buyer for TikTok, adding that it involved “multiple” investors but giving no further details.Motivated by national security fears and widespread belief in Washington that TikTok is ultimately controlled by the Chinese government, the law took effect on January 19, one day before Trump’s inauguration.In the hours before that deadline, TikTok temporarily shut down in the United States and disappeared from app stores, to the dismay of millions of users.But the Republican president quickly announced a 75-day delay and TikTok subsequently restored service to existing users, returning to the Apple and Google app stores in February.That delay is set to expire at midnight (0400 GMT) on April 5, but Trump has repeatedly downplayed risks that TikTok is in danger, saying he remains confident of finding a buyer for the app’s US business.The president also suggested TikTok could even be part of a broader deal with China to ease the stinging tariffs he imposed on Beijing as part of a worldwide blitz of levies.Asked Thursday if he was willing to make deals with countries on tariffs, he said: “As long as they are giving us something that is good. For instance with TikTok.””We have a situation with TikTok where China will probably say we’ll approve a deal, but will you do something on the tariffs. The tariffs give us great power to negotiate,” he added.According to reports, the most likely solution would see existing US investors in ByteDance roll over their stakes into a new independent global TikTok company.Additional US investors, including Oracle and Blackstone, the private equity firm, would be brought on to reduce ByteDance’s share.Much of TikTok’s US activity is already housed on Oracle servers, and the company’s chairman, Larry Ellison, is a longtime Trump ally.- What about the algorithm? -But uncertainty remains, particularly over what would happen to TikTok’s valuable algorithm. “TikTok without its algorithm is like Harry Potter without his wand — it’s simply not as powerful,” said Forrester Principal Analyst Kelsey Chickering.”If the TikTok experience degrades, users, creators, and advertisers will spend more time and money on other media channels,” she added.The New York Times suggested the new company could license it from ByteDance.Such an arrangement would go against the spirit of the law, which is in part based on the premise that TikTok’s algorithm can be weaponized by the Chinese against US interests.Amazon has also reportedly made a last-minute bid to buy TikTok.Other proposals include an initiative called “The People’s Bid for TikTok,” launched by real estate and sports tycoon Frank McCourt’s Project Liberty initiative.Artificial intelligence startup Perplexity recently expressed interest in buying TikTok, as did a joint venture involving YouTube mega-celebrity MrBeast and another bid from adult content platform OnlyFans.Trump, though he supported a ban in his first term, has lately become a TikTok defender, seeing it as a reason more young voters supported him in November’s election.One of his major political donors, billionaire Jeff Yass, is a major stakeholder in parent company ByteDance.

Equities and oil prices extended a global rout for markets Friday after China hit back over President Donald Trump’s tariff blitz with its own mammoth levy on US goods, inflaming global trade war fears.The Chinese government said it would impose additional 34 percent tariffs on all imports of US goods, making it the first major nation to unveil retaliatory measures.Despite the market turmoil, Trump insisted that “my policies will never change” and urged the US Federal Reserve to cut interest rates.Wall Street stocks dropped sharply in morning trading, with the blue-chip Dow falling below 39,000 points briefly for the first time since August.The S&P 500 also briefly exceeded its Thursday loss — its largest drop since the Covid pandemic in 2020.”Sentiment is so fragile right now,” Chris Beauchamp, chief market analyst at online trading platform IG, told AFP.”Investors are firmly in the ‘get me to cash now’ phase, on fears that other nations will follow China’s lead, and of course that the US president will respond to China’s tariffs with even more charges,” he said.”This trade war is like nothing we’ve seen for years, perhaps decades.” European markets ended the day sharply lower, with Frankfurt and London sinking nearly five percent.With Powell set to speak publicly, Trump posted on his Truth Social account that “This would be a PERFECT time for Fed Chairman Jerome Powell to cut Interest Rates.”XTB research director Kathleen Brooks said that with Trump doubling down on his tariffs despite feeling the heat from the market selloff “leaves the Fed to do the heavy lifting and try to calm financial markets”.But Powell said he expected the current economic uncertainty would decline, setting Wall Street stocks down further.The falls came despite data showing the US economy added 228,000 jobs last month, much higher than analysts expected.”There’s no question that the trade war is fuelling the current selloff, but the big question is if and when it will start to impact the economy in a meaningful way,” said eToro US investment analyst Bret Kenwell.The jobs report “again showed that we have yet to see a significant spike in jobless claims, and if the most recent payrolls report avoids a large revision lower like we saw for February, it bodes well for the US economy,” he added. The dollar rebounded against the euro and pound, having fallen sharply Thursday on fears of a recession in the United States.But oil futures plummeted around seven percent, having already plunged some six to seven percent Thursday on the prospect of weaker demand.News that OPEC+ had unexpectedly hiked crude supply more than planned added to the heavy selling.The price of copper — a vital component for energy storage, electric vehicles, solar panels and wind turbines — tumbled more than five percent.Beijing on Friday also imposed export controls on seven rare earth elements, its commerce ministry said, including gadolinium — commonly used in MRIs — and yttrium, utilised in consumer electronics.”Another jolt of fear has shot through markets as China’s threat of retaliation has materialised,” said Susannah Streeter, head of money and markets at Hargreaves Lansdown. “The big concern is that this is a sign of a sharp escalation of the tariff war which will have major implications for the global economy,” she said.- Key figures around 1530 GMT -West Texas Intermediate: DOWN 7.0 percent at $62.27 per barrelBrent North Sea Crude: DOWN 5.6 percent at $66.23 per barrelNew York – Dow: DOWN 3.3 percent at 39,194.40 pointsNew York – S&P 500: DOWN 3.9 percent at 5,188.63 New York – Nasdaq Composite: DOWN 3.8 percent at 15,915.69Frankfurt – DAX: DOWN 5.0 percent at 20,641.72 (close)Paris – CAC 40: DOWN 4.3 percent at 7,274.95 (close)London – FTSE 100: DOWN 5.0 percent at 8,054.98 (close)Tokyo – Nikkei 225: DOWN 2.8 percent at 33,780.58 (close)Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: Closed for a holidayShanghai – Composite: Closed for a holidayEuro/dollar: DOWN at $1.0986 from $1.1052 on ThursdayPound/dollar: DOWN at $1.2953 from $1.2968Dollar/yen: DOWN at 145.82 yen from 145.99 yenEuro/pound: UP at 84.99 pence from 84.34 penceburs-rl/js