Stock market today: Nasdaq, S&P 500 dive, snap 3-day win streak as Trump preps auto tariffs
US stocks closed lower Wednesday as President Trump prepared to unveil new tariffs on US auto imports.
The benchmark S&P 500 (
^GSPC
) was down more than 1.1%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average (
^DJI
) fell about 0.4%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (
^IXIC
) led the losses, sliding over 2%. Tech leaders Nvidia (
NVDA
) and Tesla (
TSLA
) both closed down more than 5%.
Stocks are on shifting sands as markets respond to changes in tone from Trump on coming tariffs. The White House press secretary said Wednesday that Trump would hold a press conference at 4 p.m. ET to announce new tariffs on auto imports, hitting Tesla and other auto stocks like GM (
GM
) and Ford (
F
).
Meanwhile, Wall Street is focused on how “flexible” Trump will be in the reciprocal duties
set to take effect on April 2
.
In another tone shift, Trump
told Newsmax
on Tuesday that he “doesn’t want to have too many exceptions” to the levies — a potential swing back to the hard line seen earlier in March. Those threats directed at the EU and Canada fueled a sell-off that pushed
the S&P 500 into correction territory
.
Read more: The latest on Trump’s tariffs
Also, the White House appears to be accelerating its plans for copper levies. Tariffs on
copper imports could be coming within several weeks
, months ahead of a deadline for implementing the measures, Bloomberg reported. Copper (
HG=F
) prices surged to a record on the heels of the news.
In corporates, GameStop (
GME
) stock jumped over 11% after the video game retailer’s
approval of a plan to buy bitcoin
(
BTC-USD
) with its cash holdings.
In other economic news, orders for durable goods
came in stronger than expected
in February, data released Wednesday showed. The 0.9% rise topped expectations for a drop of 1% but undershot January’s 3.3% reading.
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