A day earlier, all three indexes posted significant gains, with the Dow Jones increasing by nearly 3,000 points.
Wall Street opened sharply lower on Thursday morning, coming a day after President Donald Trump’s announcement that he would pause reciprocal tariffs for every country except China.
As the markets opened at 9:30 a.m., the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down by roughly 700 points, or more than 2 percent, while the Nasdaq composite shed more than 400 points, or roughly 2 percent. The S&P 500, which had posted its largest single-day gain since 2008 after Trump’s announcement, dropped by more than 2 percentage points.
In the global markets, Germany’s DAX initially gained more than 8 percent and was up by 5.3 percent later on, while France’s CAC 40 in Paris gained 5 percent and Britain’s FTSE 100 surged by 4 percent. Japan’s benchmark jumped by more than 9 percent as investors welcomed Trump’s decision to put his latest tariff hikes on hold for 90 days.
On Wednesday, all three indexes posted significant gains, with the Dow Jones increasing by nearly 3,000 points and the Nasdaq shooting up by 1,800 points. Those gains immediately followed Trump’s announcement to pause the duties.
The White House later confirmed that the pause only impacts rates higher than the 10 percent baseline tariff that he announced last week. The baseline tariff is still in effect, officials said.
China would face higher rates because of the “lack of respect that China has shown to the World’s Markets,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform. Chinese imports into the United States will now face a 125 percent tariff, “effective immediately,” he said.
“At some point, hopefully in the near future, China will realize that the days of ripping off the U.S.A., and other Countries, is no longer sustainable or acceptable,” he added.
The European Union’s executive commission said on Thursday it will put its retaliatory measures against new U.S. tariffs on hold for 90 days to match Trump’s pause on his sweeping new tariffs and leave room for a negotiated solution.
