Stocks dropped Wednesday as Wall Street braced for the expected rollout of President Donald Trump’s tariffs.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 121 points, or 0.2%. The S&P 500 slid 0.3%, and the Nasdaq Composite pulled back by 0.4%.
Tesla shares weighed on the broader market, losing about 3% after the company reported disappointing deliveries for the first quarter.
The moves come ahead of the implementation of a raft of Trump’s “reciprocal tariffs” that will “start with all countries.” The White House revealed Tuesday that the levies “will be effective immediately” after being unveiled at an event in the Rose Garden.
Details are still scarce. The administration as of Tuesday had yet to decide on the tariff levels and was still considering several options, according to a report from Bloomberg News, citing people familiar.
“Markets can deal with a lot of bad news - they sell off and then eventually find some silver lining and begin a recovery (or get the Fed to help along with easing),” said Jan Szilagyi, CEO and co-founder of Reflexivity. “However, in the current environment the complexity of possible scenarios would be tough to analyze even if you know definitively that one of them will happen - and we don’t. ”
However, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told lawmakers that Wednesday’s duties will serve as a “cap,” where the tariffs that are announced will be the highest amount set, Rep. Kevin Hern, R-Okla. revealed to CNBC’s Emily Wilkins. That will give countries the opportunity to take steps to bring the tariff amount down.
The Washington Post had also reported that the White House was considering imposing tariffs of roughly 20% on most imports coming into the country. However, the report said that advisors cautioned that several options are still on the table.
Stocks have come under pressure as uncertainty around Trump’s tariffs has spurred recent market volatility, with the broad market index down five out of the past six weeks. However, some investors think the sell-off is overdone.
Source: cnbc.com
