Wall Street Losses Deepen as Trump's Tax and Trade War Raise Questions of Competence

Barry Adams
04 Apr, 2025
New York City

Stock market indexes on Wall Street extended weekly losses in Friday's trading after China announced its retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods. 

The S&P 500 index dropped as much as 3.9%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite decreased more than 4%. 

Investors remained on the sideline after China announced 34% tariffs on all U.S. goods starting April 10, expanded its list of "unreliable entities," and opened an investigation into DuPont. 

Moreover, the European Union is looking to announce its retaliatory tariffs, and France has called on all European companies to freeze their investment plans in the U.S.

Mexico and Canada, the two largest trading partners of the U.S., are also preparing their list of tariffs and trade restrictions on U.S. goods and services. 

In a historic shift of U.S. trade policy, consumers are likely to face higher food, energy, and automobile prices as early as next week, as the Trump administration prepares to roll out additional tariffs over the next three weeks. 

Investors are worried that additional tariffs targeting certain sectors, industries, and companies are likely to worsen the outlook for global trade.

Crude oil prices plunged more than 7% amid rising global recession worries and slowing demand from China and the U.S.  

On the economic front, nonfarm payrolls increase accelerated to 228,000 in March from the downwardly revised 117,000 and rose to a three-month high, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday.

The increase in payrolls was driven by a 54,000 surge in healthcare workers, a 24,000 increase in social assistance, and a 23,000 rise in transportation and warehousing. 

The jobless rate in the month edged up a fraction to 4.2% from 4.1% in the previous month, and the average hourly wage income rose at an annual pace of 3.8% to $36.0. 

 

Commodities, Currencies, Indexes, Yields

The S&P 500 index decreased 2.9% to 5,240.34, the Nasdaq Composite edged down 3% to 16,060.14, and the Russell 2000 index was down 4.1% to 1,832.63.

The yield on 2-year Treasury notes edged lower to 3.60%, 10-year Treasury notes decreased to 3.91%, and 30-year Treasury bonds declined to 4.37%.

WTI crude oil decreased $5.02 to $61.92 a barrel, and natural gas prices edged lower by $0.22 to $3.92 a therm. unit.

Gold decreased by $28.73 to $3,084.02 an ounce, and silver edged down by $1.14 to $30.76.

The dollar index, which weighs the US currency against a basket of foreign currencies, increased by 0.09 to 102.17 and traded at a two-year high.

 

U.S. Movers

Bank and retail stocks extended losses for the second consecutive day amid worries of rising inflation and slowing consumer demand. 

Bank of America decreased 6.8% to $34.67, Morgan Stanley dropped 9% to $99.09, Goldman Sachs plunged 7.7% to $471.80, and American Express sank 6.4% to $231.22.

Lululemon Athletica plunged 5.9% to $240.81, Abercrombie & Fitch dropped 1.4% to $69.31, Gap Inc. declined 2.4% to $17.39, and RH plunged 14.2% to $128.29. 

Lamb Weston Holdings Inc. dropped 0.4% to $59.30 after the food processing company reported results for the fiscal third quarter of 2025.

Net sales increased to $1.52 billion from $1.46 billion, net income inched up to $146.0 million from $146.1 million, and diluted earnings per share rose to $1.03 from $1.01 a year ago.

The company guided for the full-year net sales to be between $6.35 billion and $6.45 billion, compared to $6.47 billion in 2024, and adjusted EBITDA between $1.17 billion and $1.21 billion, compared to $1.42 billion a year earlier.

Adjusted net income is expected to be between $440 million and $460 million, compared to $740 million, and adjusted diluted earnings per share between $3.05 and $3.20, compared to $5.08 in 2024.