Stocks resumed their pullback on Thursday as the latest concessions from the White House on President Donald Trump's controversial tariff policies failed to calm rattled investors.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average traded 523 points lower, or 1.2%. The S&P 500 shed 1.8%, while the Nasdaq Composite lost 2.3%.
The major averages have each lost more than 3% this week as U.S. tariffs on Canadian, Mexican and Chinese imports took effect, rocking financial markets. Canada and China responded with retaliatory levies of its own, while Mexico said it would unveil measures over the weekend.
Despite this week's slide, the market got a boost on Wednesday after the White House it would grant a one-month delay for tariffs on automakers whose cars comply with the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement. Trump said Thursday that most Mexican imports in compliance with the USMCA trade agreement also received an extension, but that news did not deliver the same upward momentum in the market seen in the prior session as uncertainty around the policy mounted.
"You're just having confusion," said Keith Lerner, chief market strategist at Truist. "That confusion is permeating into the day-to-day swings of the market."
A continued unwind of the popular artificial intelligence trade that has boosted the market for more than a year also hurt stocks on Thursday.
Notably, chipmaker Marvell Technology
dropped more than 18% after the company issued mixed first-quarter guidance. Other semiconductor builders such as ON Semiconductor,
Taiwan Semiconductor and Nvidia also slid.
On top of that, a string of recent economic reports raised alarm that Trump's policies could hinder the U.S. economy. Those came ahead of Friday's closely watched jobs report.
The Federal Reserve's Beige Book and the Institute for Supply Management's manufacturing reading both indicated fear of rising input costs because of the tariffs. Data from Challenger, Gray & Christmas released Thursday showed layoff announcements soared to 2020 highs, which the outplacement firm found was driven by Trump and billionaire Elon Musk's efforts to shrink the federal government's workforce.(Cay)
Source: CNBC
Tested EN...
Asian stock markets weakened for the second consecutive day, indicating that the initial rally that had been "speedy" at the start of the year is starting to lose steam. At the same time, US governmen...
US stocks were mixed on Wednesday as investors weighed uneven economic data against expectations for eventual Federal Reserve easing, with the S&P 500 easing 0.2% and the Dow Jones sliding 0.8% fr...
European stocks were in mixed territory on Wednesday morning, as regional market jitters grow over U.S. President Donald Trump's threat to annex Greenland. The pan-European Stoxx 600 was little chang...
Asian stock markets weakened slightly on Wednesday after posting their best start to the year in history. The decline was driven by a decline in Japanese stocks amid escalating tensions with China. Th...
Oil prices stabilized on Thursday (February 12th), as the market reassigned a risk premium to US-Iran tensions despite US inventory data showing swelling domestic supplies. This movement confirms one thing: geopolitical headlines are still more...
Gold prices weakened slightly on Thursday (February 12th), as more solid US employment data reduced market confidence in an imminent Federal Reserve interest rate cut. The strong employment data prompted market participants to shift expectations of...
The Hang Seng Index reversed its downward trend in Hong Kong on Thursday (February 12th), weakening by around 0.9% to around 27,000 after a strong session earlier. This decline halted the momentum of the short term rally, as investors began to...