Despite a strong initial rise, US stocks weakened significantly today, with the S&P 500 index closing below 5,000 points for the first time since last April. Concerns about the impact of US President Donald Trump’s tariff policy persist on the financial markets. The Dow Jones index, which includes shares of thirty leading US companies, lost 0.84 per cent to end trading at 37,645.59 points. The broader S&P 500 index fell 1.57 percent to 4,982.77 points and the Nasdaq Composite index, which includes many companies in the high-tech sector, fell as much as 2.15 percent to 15,267.91 points.
USA reciprocal tariffs come into force
The United States will start levying so-called reciprocal tariffs on Wednesday, for example, on imports from the EU at a rate of 20 per cent. The total tariff burden on imports from China to the US will then increase to 104 percent on Wednesday.
According to Reuters , investors had hoped that Trump would make some last-minute concessions or delays on the new tariffs, but those hopes were not fulfilled. “People wanted to be optimistic and ultimately found they had no reason to be,” said analyst Melissa Brown of SimCorp.
US remains firm on tariffs, euro strengthens against dollar
The United States has expressed a willingness to negotiate so-called reciprocal tariffs with individual countries. But at the same time, through Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and trade adviser Peter Navarro, the White House is expressing confidence in the benefits of the tariffs and the expectation that they will remain in place for a longer period of time.
On the foreign exchange market today, the euro strengthened against the US dollar. Shortly after 22:00 CET, the single European currency gained around 0.4 percent against the dollar and hovered close to USD 1.0960.
Source: Reuters
