Wall Street Stocks Remain Volatile After Trump Unleashes New Set of Tariffs and Threats

Barry Adams
27 Mar, 2025
New York City

Stock market indexes rebounded from the sharp decline at the start of the regular trading session amid ongoing Trump tariff turmoil. 

Market indexes struggled to advance amid heightened anxieties and lingering uncertainties about the Trump administration's trade policy. 

The White House announced a fresh set of tariffs targeting automobile makers in Europe and Asia and slapped 25% tariffs on all imported vehicles not made in the United States. 

The vague announcement, which lacks details, released on a social media platform owned by the president of the United States, shed little light on how import taxes will be implemented beginning April 2. 

The White House is hoping that the retaliatory tariffs will force five key trading partners—Canada, Mexico, the European Union, Japan, and China—to lower their trade barriers to import American goods. 

On the economic front, the U.S. goods trade deficit narrowed to a $147.9 billion February from $155.6 billion in January, the U.S. Census Bureau reported Thursday. 

Seasonally adjusted goods imports soared 22.5% from a year ago to $326.5 billion, and exports advanced 2.5% from a year ago to $178.6 billion.

The U.S. economy expanded at an annual pace of 2.4% in the fourth quarter, higher than the previous estimate of 2.3%, the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis reported Thursday. 

The GDP growth was revised higher following the downward revision in the imports in the quarter.

Initial jobless claims for the week ending March 22 declined 1,000 to 224,000 and remained at historically low levels, according to the weekly update released by the U.S. Department of Labor. 

Continuing claims , which lag by one week, during the week ending on March 15 eased by 25,000 to 1.86 million.  

 

Commodities, Currencies, Indexes, Yields

The S&P 500 index decreased 0.4% to 5,688.75, the Nasdaq Composite edged down 0.5% to 17,805.94, and the Russell 2000 index was down 0.6% to 2,061.84.

The yield on 2-year Treasury notes edged lower to 4.02%, 10-year Treasury notes increased to 4.36%, and 30-year Treasury bonds advanced to 4.74%.

WTI crude oil decreased $0.42 to $69.23 a barrel, and natural gas prices edged higher by $0.01 to $3.88 a therm. unit.

Gold increased by $13.74 to $3,035.11 an ounce, and silver edged up by $0.10 to $33.75.

The dollar index, which weighs the US currency against a basket of foreign currencies, decreased by 0.15 to 104.40 and traded at a two-year high.

 

U.S. Stock Movers

General Motors declined 6.2% to $47.74, Tesla jumped 5.5% to $287.22, and Ford Motor Company fell 10% to $10.10.

Dollar Tree soared 10.5% to $76.44 after the discount store chain operator announced its plans to sell Family Dollar for $1 billion to a group of private equity investors. 

Dollar Tree acquired Family Dollar about a decade ago for $9 billion, ending its disastrous merger with the larger company amid a surge in inflation affecting the core low-income customer base.