All three major U.S. stock indexes saw declines on Thursday morning.
The three major U.S. stock indexes dropped on Thursday morning after President Donald Trump announced sweeping tariffs of 10 percent or higher, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunging by approximately 1,500 points at one point in the early trading period.
Aside from the Dow Jones tumbling, the S&P 500 Index dropped by 3.2 percent, and the Nasdaq Composite slid by more than 4.2 percent at around 9:35 a.m. EST.
Major multinational companies also saw declines. Nike saw an 11 percent decline, Apple dropped by about 7 percent, Gap was down by 12 percent, Target was down by 9 percent, Amazon shed more than 6 percent, Five Below dropped by 22 percent, Dollar Tree tumbled by 9 percent, and HP Inc. shed 13 percent, among others.
On Wednesday evening, Trump announced a minimum tariff of 10 percent on imports from all countries into the United States, with the tax rate running much higher on products from certain countries such as China and those from the European Union.
In stock markets abroad, indexes fell worldwide. France’s CAC 40 dropped by 3.1 percent, and Germany’s DAX lost 2.4 percent in Europe. Japan’s Nikkei 225 dropped by 2.8 percent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng lost 1.5 percent, and South Korea’s Kospi dropped by 0.8 percent.
Yields on Treasury’s tumbled in part on rising expectations for coming cuts to rates, along with general fear about the health of the U.S. economy. The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.03 percent from 4.20 percent late Wednesday and from roughly 4.80 percent in January. That’s a huge move for the bond market.
A major technology group, the Consumer Technology Association (CTA), voiced concern over the tariffs and said it would effectively cause “massive tax hikes” on American consumers that will drive up inflation.
“These tariffs will raise consumer prices and will force our trade partners to retaliate. Americans will become poorer because of these tariffs. This will not be a golden age–but a return to the global economic catastrophe of the Smoot-Hawley tariffs of the 1930s that will disproportionately hurt low income and hardworking Americans,” the group said in a statement.
