Wall Street’s main indexes fell on Thursday (Apr 10), coming off a blistering rally following US President Donald Trump’s move to temporarily lower the heavy tariffs on dozens of countries.
The U-turn came less than 24 hours after the new tariffs took effect on most trading partners, lifting the S&P 500 to its biggest single-day percentage gain since 2008 on Wednesday. The Nasdaq posted its biggest one-day jump since 2001.
Trump also announced a 90-day pause on many of his new reciprocal tariffs, but raised them to 125 per cent on Chinese imports from 104 per cent. Beijing had slapped 84 per cent tariffs on US imports to match Trump’s earlier levy.
The European Union said it had agreed on a 90-day pause on counter tariffs on US goods, which were due on Apr 15.
At 9.35am, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 718.88 points, or 1.77 per cent, to 39,889.57, the S&P 500 lost 122.54 points, or 2.25 per cent, to 5,334.36 and the Nasdaq Composite lost 457.83 points, or 2.67 per cent, to 16,667.14.
Most S&P 500 sectors were in the red. Information technology and energy led the losses, falling 3.5 per cent and 3.9 per cent, respectively. Consumer staples was the only sector that saw gains.
Most megacap and growth stocks slid, with Tesla and Nvidia down more than 4 per cent each.
The CBOE Volatility Index – seen as Wall Street’s “fear gauge” – fell from its August highs, but was last up at 36.17 points. The small-cap Russell 2000 was down 2.9 per cent.
Meanwhile, data showed the consumer price index unexpectedly dipped 0.1 per cent in March, in line with estimates and advanced 2.4 per cent in the 12 months through March, compared with expectations of a 2.6 per cent climb, according to economists polled by Reuters.
