Wall Street drifts lower as stock markets worldwide take Trump’s new tariffs in stride

Lower interest rates can give the economy and investment prices a boost, though the downside is that they can also push inflation higher. The Bank of England cut its main interest rate on Thursday in hopes of bolstering the sluggish U.K. economy.

The US tariffs that took effect Thursday morning were already well known, as well as lower than what Trump had initially threatened. Some countries are still trying to negotiate down the tax rates on their exports, and continued uncertainty seems to be the only certainty on Wall Street. All the while, the US stock market faces criticism that it’s climbed too far, too fast since hitting a bottom in April, with prices looking too expensive.

On Wall Street, worries about tariffs helped drag down the stock of Crocs.

The footwear maker tumbled 29.2 percent even though it reported a stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. It said it expects revenue to drop as much as 11 percent in the current quarter from a year earlier, while tariffs are dragging on its profitability. The company cited “continued uncertainty from evolving global trade policy and related pressures around the consumer.”

Eli Lilly dropped 14.1 percent even though the drugmaker likewise reported a stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. Analysts said some investors were disappointed with results that Lilly provided for a late-stage study of its potential pill version of the popular weight-loss drug Zepbound.

Intel sank 3.1 percent after Trump called for its CEO to resign, while accusing him of being “highly CONFLICTED,” though he gave no evidence.

Apple helped keep the market’s losses in check, as it rose on hopes that its massive size can help it navigate Trump’s economy. Its stock climbed 3.2 percent after CEO Tim Cook joined Trump at the White House on Wednesday to say it’s increasing its investment in US manufacturing by an additional $100 billion over the next four years.

Trump also announced a 100 percent tariff on imported computer chips, but he added “if you’re building in the United States of America, there’s no charge.”

“Large, cash-rich companies that can afford to build in America will be the ones to benefit the most,” said Brian Jacobsen, chief economist at Annex Wealth Management. “It’s survival of the biggest.”

DoorDash added 5 percent after the delivery app topped Wall Street’s profit expectations for the latest quarter. It attracted new customers and saw the total number of orders increase.

Duolingo, the language-learning app, jumped 13.7 percent after it crushed Wall Street’s expectations. The company said its subscription revenue grew 46 percent over the same period last year.

All told the S&P 500 edged down by 5.06 points to 6,340.00. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 224.48 to 43,968.64, and the Nasdaq composite rose 73.27 to 21,242.70.

In stock markets abroad, indexes rose across much of Europe and Asia.

Stocks climbed 0.2 percent in Shanghai and 0.7 percent in Hong Kong after China reported that its exports picked up in July, helped by a flurry of shipments as businesses took advantage of a pause in Trump’s tariff war with Beijing.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 0.6 percent. Toyota Motor’s stock fell after it cut its full-year earnings forecasts largely because of Trump’s tariffs, but Sony rose after the entertainment and electronics company indicated it’s taking less damage from the tariffs than it had expected.

In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.23 percent from 4.22 percent late Wednesday after the latest reports on the US economy came in mixed.

One said that slightly more US workers applied for unemployment benefits last week. That could be an indication of rising layoffs, but the number remains within its recent range.

“There is nothing to see here!” according to Carl Weinberg, chief economist at High Frequency Economics. “These are not nearly recession readings.”

A separate report said that productivity for US workers improved by more during the spring than economists expected. That could help the US economy grow without adding more pressure on inflation. And that’s particularly important when Trump’s tariffs look set to increase prices for all kinds of things that US households and businesses buy.

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AP Business Writers Teresa Cerojano and Matt Ott contributed.