Wall Street Live: Dow Jones tanks 1%, S&P 500 dips 0.8%, Nasdaq drops 0.9% as Trump expands tariff crackdown

Stocks on Wall Street ended sharply lower on Monday as growing trade tensions weighed on investor sentiment. The losses came after the White House ramped up pressure on key trading partners, warning of steep tariffs unless new deals are reached by August 1.

The S&P 500 dropped 0.8%, marking its biggest single-day decline since mid-June, though it remains close to the record high it hit last week.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.9% (422 points), while the Nasdaq composite also slipped 0.9% (188 points).

The market downturn followed President Donald Trump’s tariff warning letters to several US allies, including Japan, South Korea, South Africa, and Malaysia.

At the opening bell, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 25.2 points, or 0.06%, to 44,803.36. The S&P 500 fell 20.3 points, or 0.32%, to 6,259.04, while the Nasdaq Composite dropped 110.6 points, or 0.54%, to 20,490.55.

US President Donald Trump said over the weekend that his administration would send letters to several trading partners as early as Monday, specifying their tariff rates if they don’t reach a deal before Wednesday. 

The US would not start collecting those taxes until August 1, he added.

On Sunday, the US President threatened to impose an additional 10% tariffs against the BRICS bloc of developing nations, which had condemned tariffs hike at its summit in Brazil.

In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.37% from 4.34% late on Thursday.

Gainers and Losers

Tesla shares slid 7.9% after CEO Elon Musk announced his plans to launch a new political party in protest against the Trump’s spending bill.

Capgemini stock dropped 5.54% after the French IT services firm said it agreed to buy the outsourcing firm WNS for $3.3 billion. WNS shares jumped 14.3%.

Oracle shares slipped 2.5% and Chipotle Mexican Grill lost 2.2%.

Molina Healthcare tumbled 6% after the insurer lowered its profit forecast.

Bullion

Gold prices eased on Monday as the US dollar-industries-share-price-nse-bse-s0003324″ data-vars-anchor-text=”dollar”>dollar appreciated.

Spot gold was down 0.8% at $3,307.87 an ounce at 1302 GMT. US gold futures lost 0.7% to $3,318.

Among other metals, spot silver fell 1.6% to $36.32 an ounce, platinum shed 2.9% to $1,350.97 and palladium lost 3% to $1,100.65.

Oil prices fluctuated on Monday after the OPEC agreed on Saturday to increase production in August by 548,000 barrels per day.

US benchmark crude rose 0.5%, while the international standard Brent crude edged up 1%.