Wall Street today: Dow Jones, S&P 500, Nasdaq dip on worries over full-blown trade war after Trump’s tariffs | Stock Market News
Source: Live Mint
US stock indices declined at the open on Monday on worries over a full-blown trade war after President Donald Trump imposed steep tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China.
Fears of a global trade war and its impact on the world economy also jolted the stock markets around the world.
At the opening bell, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 276.5 points, or 0.62%, to 44,268.15. The S&P 500 fell 70.9 points, or 1.17%, to 5,969.65, while the Nasdaq Composite dropped 412.1 points, or 2.10%, to 19,215.375.
Trump’s tariffs
President Trump said his tariffs on the three largest US trading partners, which take effect on February 4, might cause Americans some short-term pain, but “long term, the United States has been ripped off by virtually every country in the world”.
He also indicated that the 27-nation European Union would be next in the firing line, but did not say when.
“They don’t take our cars, they don’t take our farm products. They take almost nothing and we take everything from them,” he said in Washington on Sunday.
On economic front, US manufacturing activity expanded in January for the first time in more than two years on improving demand and production. The Institute for Supply Management’s (ISM) manufacturing index hit 50.9 percent last month, rising 1.7 percentage points from November to cross the 50-point mark separating expansion from contraction.
Gainers and losers
Among megacaps, Apple stock fell 3.5% and Nvidia slid 5%.
Automaker Ford fell 2.9%, while General Motors shed 4.7%.
Tyson Foods gained 2.2% after the company raised its annual sales forecast.
IDEXX Laboratories soared 12.2% after the animal diagnostics maker beat quarterly profit and revenue estimates.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.50% from 4.55% late on Friday. The yield on the two-year Treasury rose to 4.24% from 4.21%.
Bullion
Gold prices rose to an all-time high on Monday, bolstered by safe-haven demand after Trump’s tariffs on Canada, China and Mexico.
Spot gold rose 0.6% to $2,816.53 per ounce by 09:38 am ET (1438 GMT), after hitting a record of $2,818.58 earlier in the session. US gold futures rose 0.7% to $2,855.90, trading at a higher premium to spot rates.
Spot silver rose by 0.1% to $31.33 an ounce.
Crude oil
Oil prices surged on Monday, with US Texas Intermediate crude up $1.31 at $73.82 a barrel. Brent crude futures edged up 80 cents at $76.46 a barrel as investors tried to gauge the impact of the tariffs on world energy.
