Washington DC - President Donald Trump on Wednesday appeared to acknowledge that market turmoil had influenced his reversal on steep global tariffs, but defended his retreat, saying it was good to be flexible.

"I thought that people were jumping a little bit out of line. They were getting yippy, you know, they were getting a little bit yippy, a little bit afraid," he said.

"You have to have flexibility."

Earlier Wednesday, Trump announced a 90-day pause on his sweeping reciprocal tariffs, giving almost all countries a 10% baseline.

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The president did not extend this pause to China, instead announcing an even higher tariff of 125% over the country's "lack of respect" to the global market.

He predicted that trade deals would be made with all countries, including China, but he said he did not think Beijing was ready yet.

"A deal's going to be made with China. A deal's going to be made with every one of them," Trump said at the White House. However, China's leaders "don't quite know how to go about it," he added.

Wall Street stocks rocketed to close solidly higher on Wednesday, with dramatic advances on all three major indexes after the steep tariffs were delayed.