US stock markets pared earlier gains and tumbled sharply on Friday after President Donald Trump threatened to impose “massive” tariffs on Chinese imports, thereby reviving trade war concerns.
The downturn was triggered by a post on social media in which President Trump alleged that China was “becoming very hostile” by imposing new export controls on rare earths. Following this accusation, Trump announced the cancellation of a meeting with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, which had been scheduled for later this month, further escalating diplomatic and economic tensions.
“One of the Policies that we are calculating at this moment is a massive increase of Tariffs on Chinese products coming into the United States of America,” Trump said, adding that he was considering “many other countermeasures.”
AT 1:18 PM EDT, the S&P 500 sank 123.76 points, or 1.84%; the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 591.47 points, or 1.28%; and the Nasdaq Composite was down 583.91 points, or 2.54%.
At 12:11 PM ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 554.58 points, or 1.20%, to 45,803.84, the S&P 500 lost 105.34 points, or 1.56%, to 6,629.77 and the Nasdaq Composite lost 471.76 points, or 2.05%, to 22,552.86.
At 10:07 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 159.54 points, or 0.34%, to 46,517.96. The S&P 500 gained 15.69 points, or 0.23%, to 6,750.80, while the Nasdaq Composite advanced 55.46 points, or 0.24%, to 23,079.81.
As of 9:35 AM Eastern Time, the S&P 500 rose 0.2%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.5%, and the Nasdaq Composite was 0.2% higher.
At the open, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 36.5 points, or 0.08%, to 46,394.88. The S&P 500 rose 5.4 points, or 0.08%, to 6,740.49, while the Nasdaq Composite rose 18.9 points, or 0.08%, to 23,043.519.
In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury sank to 4.09% from 4.14% late on Thursday.
Gainers and Losers
Among megacap stocks, Nvidia fell 2.89%, Apple declined 2.57%, Tesla tanked 4.33%, and Microsoft lost 1.58%.
Levi Strauss stock dropped 12.02% despite the company reported a stronger quarterly profit.
Qualcomm stock lost 4.5% after China’s market regulator said the country has launched an antitrust probe into the semiconductor manufacturer over its acquisition of Israel’s Autotalks.
PepsiCo edged up 3.41% after at least four brokerages raised their price targets on the stock.
Applied Digital shares soared 16.68%, a day after the data center operator posted better-than-expected revenue for the first quarter.
Crude Oil
Global oil prices dropped sharply to multi-month lows on Friday, as the immediate risk premium that had sustained the market faded following the announcement of a planned end to hostilities in Gaza.
The decline was triggered by the signing of a ceasefire agreement between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas on Thursday. This accord represents the initial phase of a peace initiative brokered by US President Donald Trump, intended to bring the conflict in the region to a close.
Brent crude futures edged down $1.73, or 2.7%, at $63.49 a barrel at 1316 GMT. US West Texas Intermediate crude was down $1.71, or 2.8%, to $59.80.
Bullion Market
Gold prices advanced on Friday, buoyed by expectations of a Federal Reserve rate cut this month and on strong safe-haven appeal.
As of 8:41 AM ET (1241 GMT), spot gold was up 0.3% to $3,985.60 per ounce. US gold futures for December delivery rose 0.7% to $4,001.50.
In other metals, silver surged 1.7% to $49.95 per ounce, platinum was up 0.6% to $1,628.75 and palladium gained 3.8% to $1,464.51.
