Wall Street Indexes Deepen Losses Ahead of Import Tax Rollout

Barry Adams
31 Mar, 2025
New York City

Stock market indexes on Wall Street extended losses of the previous six weeks amid growing worries about the health of the U.S. economy and inflation. 

The S&P 500 index declined as much as 2% ahead of the U.S. import tax on vehicles and automotive parts imported from non-U.S. locations. 

Automobile industry-related companies led the decliners amid confusion about the scope and implementation plan for the imports. 

Wall Street and global financial markets extended losses after the Trump administration escalated the trade war, raising fears of economic slowdown, job losses, and resurgent inflation.

The selloff that started in mid-February is now intensifying as the import tax deadline looms on April 2. 

Indexes on Wall Street declined for the sixth week in a row after the alternative measure of inflation confirmed stubborn inflation.

Those worries related to higher inflation were compounded by the escalating trade war and slowing economic growth.

Economists are lowering GDP growth estimates in the first quarter to between zero and 0.3% and inflation to rebound to above 2.5%.

In March, the S&P 500 index is down about 7%, the Nasdaq has lost about 9.4%, and the Russell 2000 has fallen 7.5%.

For the quarter, the S&P 500 index has declined 6.4%, and the Nasdaq has lost 12.4%.

 

Commodities, Currencies, Indexes, Yields

The S&P 500 index decreased 1.5% to 5,495.07, the Nasdaq Composite edged down 2.5% to 16,882.13, and the Russell 2000 index was down 1.8% to 1,987.24.

The yield on 2-year Treasury notes edged lower to 3.88%, 10-year Treasury notes decreased to 4.20%, and 30-year Treasury bonds declined to 4.57%.

WTI crude oil increased $0.40 to $69.76 a barrel, and natural gas prices edged higher by $0.15 to $4.22 a thermal unit.

Gold increased by $34.06 to $3,119.14 an ounce, and silver edged down by $0.07 to $34.02.

The dollar index, which weighs the US currency against a basket of foreign currencies, increased by 0.10 to 104.14 and traded at a two-year high.

 

U.S. Stock Movers

Tesla Inc. declined 3.8% to $253.41, General Motors jumped 1% to $47.09, and Ford Motor Company added 2.4% to $9.97. 

Nvidia decreased 4% to $105.22, Broadcom declined 2.8% to $164.43, and AMD fell 1.6% to $101.58. 

Steelcase Inc. dropped 0.8% to $11.01 after the furniture design company reported increased revenue in the fiscal fourth quarter 2025 ending in February.

Revenue jumped to $788.0 million from $775.2 million, net income climbed to $27.6 million from $21.3 million, and diluted earnings per share rose to 23 cents from 18 cents a year ago.

The company guided for the first quarter of 2026 revenue to be between $760 million and $785 million, compared to $727.3 million a year ago, and earnings per share between 10 cents and 14 cents, compared to 9 cents a year earlier.

Steelcase proposed a dividend of 10 cents per share in the quarter and 40 cents per share for the full year, unchanged from a year ago.

The dividend is payable on or before April 21 to shareholders on record as of April 7.

During fiscal 2025, the company repurchased 2.1 million shares for $26.5 million, and a total of $79.9 million remained under the company's share repurchase authorization at the end of the fourth quarter.

Revenue for the full year 2025 increased to $3.17 billion from $3.16 billion, net income edged up to $120.7 million from $81.1 million, and diluted earnings per share rose to $1.02 from 68 cents a year ago.

At the end of the fourth quarter, the company’s backlog was approximately $694 million, which was 11% higher than the prior year.

For fiscal 2026, Steelcase estimated “mid-single-digit” organic revenue growth and order growth rate and modest improvement in the adjusted operating income margin compared to fiscal 2025.