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Stocks flitted between gains and losses on Thursday as investors weighed the latest tariff-related news from President Donald Trump, including his new tariffs aimed at foreign automakers.
The Dow Jones Industrials slid into the red 142.25 points to 42,312.54.
The S&P 500 Index ducked 10.27 points to 5,701.93
The NASDAQ slipped 41.9 points to 17,857.11
Select Big Tech names were down once more, as Nvidia declined about 1%.
Shares of several automakers declined after Trump on Wednesday evening announced 25% tariffs on “all cars that are not made in the United States,” which will go into effect on April 2. General Motors pulled back 7.5%, while Stellantis lost 2% and Ford slipped 3%. Elon Musk’s Tesla notably gained 4%, however. Several Wall Street analysts see Tesla as a relative beneficiary of Trump’s auto tariffs given the company’s domestic production.
Trump has long discussed imposing duties on countries that have their own tariffs on U.S. imports and said on Wednesday that his retaliatory tariffs will be permanent for his entire second term.
Still, hints provided by the President this week about the upcoming April 2 levies has given investors some relief. He said Wednesday the tariffs would be “very lenient” and that he would be willing to reduce tariffs on China to help further a deal with ByteDance’s TikTok.
At the same time, using tariffs as a negotiating tactic, he threatened on Thursday to impose “far larger” tariffs on the European Union and Canada if they work together to combat trade tariffs.
Trump’s announcements come as investors are already anxious about how his retaliatory tariffs will affect the broader U.S. economy, which is already showing some signs of weakness. Consumer confidence, for example, reached a 12-year low in March, according to a Conference Board report, in the latest indication of broader pessimism toward the economy. The board’s measure follows a similarly weak reading of the University of Michigan Survey of Consumers for March.
Prices for the 10-year Treasury faded early Thursday, hiking yields to 4.37% from Wednesday’s 4.35%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices inched higher nine cents to $69.74 U.S. a barrel.
Prices for gold gained back $37.10 to $3,059.10 U.S.