Stocks moved lower in early trading Friday as investors digested the latest threats from President Donald Trump to impose hefty tariffs on U.S. trading partners.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.7% recently, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite each dropped 0.6%. Stocks are coming off a winning session on Thursday, when the benchmark S&P 500 index and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite closed at record highs, while the Dow finished less than 1% away from its first new high since December.
Trump said late Thursday in a post on Truth Social that he plans to impose 35% tariffs on imports from Canada as of August 1, while in an interview with NBC News he said that most countries will likely face import levies of 15% or 20%, up from the current 10%. Trump has sent letters this week to more than 20 countries informing them of the tariff rates that will be imposed starting in August if deals aren’t reached before then. The flurry of announcements has revived investor concerns about the potential impact of tariffs, which experts say are likely to spur inflation and hurt economic growth.
Shares of the world’s largest technology companies, which have paced the recent rally, were mostly lower in early trading Friday. Meta Platforms (META) was down nearly 2%, while Apple (AAPL), Broadcom (AVGO) and Tesla (TSLA) each declined about 1%, and Microsoft (MSFT) and Alphabet (GOOG) fell slightly. Nvidia (NVDA) shares were up 0.5% after the AI chip giant closed yesterday’s session with a market capitalization above $4 trillion, the first company ever to do that. Amazon (AMZN) shares also inched higher as the online retail giant’s four-day “Prime Day” event draws to a close on Friday.
Cyrpto-related stocks were moving higher this morning as the price of bitcoin surged to a record high for the third straight day. Major bitcoin buyer Strategy (MSTR) rose 3.5%, while crypto exchange Coinbase Global (COIN) added 1%, and bitcoin miners MARA Holdings (MARA) and Riot Platforms (RIOT) rose 3% and 2%, respectively. Bitcoin was at $117,700 recently after hitting a high of $118,900 this morning, up from around $114,000 yesterday afternoon.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the performance of the dollar against a basket of foreign currencies, was up 0.1% at 97.79, adding to the modest gains it’s posted this week after hitting its lowest level since early 2022 last week.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury note, which affects borrowing costs on all sorts of loans, notably mortgages, was at 4.40%, up from 4.35% at yesterday’s close.
Gold futures were up 1.1% at $3,365 an ounce recently, while West Texas Intermediate futures, the U.S. crude oil benchmark, rose 1.3% to $67.45 per barrel, rebounding from a steep decline yesterday.