MARKET SNAPSHOT
U.S. stocks were crushed a day after President Trump unveiled his aggressive tariff plan that rattled the outlook for global growth, corporate profits and the flow of funds around the globe. Treasury yields fell across maturities following a tariff plan that was stiffer than expected. Oil prices plummeted, wiping out recent gains as the tariff rollout raised concerns about slowing global growth -- and oil demand with it. Gold futures slipped, likely due to some profit taking.
MARKET WRAPS
EQUITIES
U.S. stocks were hit by sharp declines as investors dealt with the threat that President Trump's new tariff plan will trigger global retaliation and hurt economic growth.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 4%. The S&P 500 lost 4.8% and the Nasdaq Composite slid 6%.
Dozens of household-name stocks posted double-digit declines, including HP, Nike and Target. Stellantis also fell sharply. The Jeep maker said it is temporarily halting production at its auto assembly factories in Mexico and Canada.
Earlier Thursday, Chinese shares ended lower, weighed by home appliances, consumer products and hardware stocks as investors are digesting the impact of Trump's tariffs, with China facing total duties of 54%.
The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index fell 0.2%, the Shenzhen Composite Index declined 1.1% and the ChiNext Price Index was off 1.9%. Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index dropped 1.5%.
Japan's Nikkei Stock Average dropped 2.8%.
Stocks in Australia slipped as the S&P/ASX 200 dropped 0.9%.
New Zealand's NZX-50 gained 0.1%. It was the third consecutive session of increases.
COMMODITIES
Oil futures suffered a sharp decline as concerns about a loss of demand due to U.S. tariffs were exacerbated by OPEC+ speeding up the return of withheld production.
"These withering trade tariff developments arrive at a time when the macroeconomic momentum was already softening," analysts at Citi Research said. "Yet, sanctions on Iranian, Venezuelan, and eventually Russian oil purchases act to tighten supply, thereby offsetting impacts from goods tariffs."
West Texas Intermediate decreased 6.6% to $66.95 a barrel. Brent dropped 6.4% to $70.14 a barrel.
Gold futures dropped 1.4% to $3,097 per ounce -- still the fourth-highest close for the contract in its history.
Gold remained near record highs as investors sought refuge in the safe-haven asset following Trump's tariff blitz.
TODAY'S TOP HEADLINES
The Day Trump's Tariffs Shook Wall Street and Corporate America
Business leaders scrambled Thursday to assess how President Trump's latest tariffs would affect their companies, with many top CEOs staying silent as the president's new policies made the cost of doing business in the U.S. much steeper.
Restoration Hardware Chief Executive Gary Friedman was on a call with analysts Wednesday afternoon talking about the furniture retailer's strategy and how the housing market could slow in this economic environment when news of the tariffs broke. He asked colleagues to get a "live read" of his business to check how the company's stock was doing.
"Oh, really? Oh, shit, OK," Friedman said in the moment. "Everybody can see in our 10-K where we're sourcing from so it's not a secret."
Trump's Tariffs Aim to Create a New World Economic Order
The U.S. is moving to blow up the global trading order it built, ushering in an uncertain new era.
President Trump's highly anticipated announcement Wednesday represents a high-stakes gamble to transform a global economic relationship that Trump for decades has said ripped off the U.S.-even as the American economy had emerged from the pandemic as the envy of its rich-world peers.
The president's moves raise the specter of a stagflationary shock that increases prices while putting more economies, including the U.S., at risk of recession.
Canada to Hit U.S. Autos With Retaliatory Tariffs
Canada will match President Trump's auto tariffs with 25% tariffs of its own on U.S. vehicles that are not compliant with the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade pact, Prime Minister Mark Carney said on Thursday.
He said the counter-tariff would apply only to finished vehicles and wouldn't affect vehicle content from Mexico. It wasn't immediately clear how many vehicles would be affected, but Carney said the tariff could raise up to 8 billion Canadian dollars, or the equivalent of $5.62 billion, which would be used to help workers and companies affected by the Trump tariffs.
Vehicles from Mexico would not be affected, and Carney said Ottawa has no plans to slap duties on auto parts given their importance in the integrated supply-chain network.
WTO Sees Decline in Trade Flows, Threat of Tariff War
Global trade flows will likely fall this year following U.S. President Trump's latest round of tariff increases, while fresh rounds of retaliation would deepen the economic impact, the head of the World Trade Organization said.
Trade in goods rebounded last year after a 2023 decline, and the WTO had expected to see a further pickup this year. But that outlook has changed following the sweeping rise in duties on imports announced by the U.S. Wednesday.
"While the situation is rapidly evolving, our initial estimates suggest that these measures, coupled with those introduced since the beginning of the year, could lead to an overall contraction of around 1% in global merchandise trade volumes this year," said Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the WTO's director general.
Initial U.S. Jobless Claims Fell Last Week
U.S. initial jobless claims moved lower last week, according to the Department of Labor, underscoring that there has been no big increase in newly employed workers through the end of March.
The week through March 29 brought 219,000 initial jobless claims, compared with 225,000 a week earlier. Economists polled by The Wall Street Journal had been forecasting 228,000 initial claims.
The number of continuing claims, a gauge of the size of the unemployed population, rose to 1.9 million in the week through March 22, the highest level since November 2021. A week earlier, continuing claims held at 1.85 million. The continuing-claims data lag the data on new filings by a week.
Conagra Brands Profit Sinks as Volumes Slip
Conagra Brands recorded lower earnings and sales in its fiscal third quarter as volumes fell across each of its segments.
The maker of Slim Jims and Healthy Choice frozen meals posted a profit of $145.1 million, or 30 cents a share, for the quarter ended Feb. 23. That's down from $308.6 million, or 64 cents a share, in the same period a year earlier.
Stripping out one-time items, adjusted earnings were 51 cents a share. Analysts polled by FactSet had been expecting 52 cents a share.
Expected Major Events for Friday
01:00/PHI: Mar CPI
02:00/JPN: Mar Imported Vehicle Sales
03:30/THA: Mar CPI
05:00/SIN: Feb Retail Sales
07:30/THA: Weekly International Reserves
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This article is a text version of a Wall Street Journal newsletter published earlier today.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
April 03, 2025 16:58 ET (20:58 GMT)
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