Coca-Cola, General Mills Lift Staples Stocks as Trump Tariffs Weigh on Markets

Stock-market investors are playing defense today.

The major U.S. indexes are in retreat Thursday morning, with the Dow, S&P 500, and Nasdaq down substantially shortly after the open. (Read

Investopedia’s

live coverage of today’s
market action here
.) Meanwhile, all but one of the S&P 500’s 11 sectors are in the red—with the sole exception of
consumer staples
considered defensive in nature—on the back of yesterday’s announcement of
sweeping global tariffs
by President Donald Trump.

Consumer staples stocks are broadly rising, including Colgate-Palmolive (

CL

), Procter & Gamble (

PG

), and frozen potato company Lamb Weston (

LW

), the latter which is among the morning’s top gainers in the benchmark index, rising nearly 8% after
reporting results
.

Some other big consumer-oriented brands are rising today, including McDonald’s (

MCD

) and Coca-Cola (

KO

), as well as grocer Kroger (

KR

), and cereal maker General Mills (

GIS

). Walmart’s (

WMT

) shares ticked lower.

Meanwhile, discretionary and tech shares are dropping, the former sector retreating more than 6% in early action. Among the index’s top decliners today are housewares company Williams Sonoma (

WSM

), consumer electronics retailer Best Buy (

BBY

), and game and toy company Hasbro (

HAS

).

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