Stocks tumbled on Friday after President Trump threatened to impose a fresh round of tariffs, this time aimed at Apple and the European Union.
The S&P 500 fell 65 points, or 1.1% in early trading, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average slid 371 points or 0.9%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite shed 263 points, or 1.4%.
The shaky start on Wall Street followed a string of Friday morning posts from the president on Truth Social regarding his tariff policy. Mr. Trump first said that he would impose a 25% tariff on Apple if the company did not shift some of their iPhone production to the U.S.
Daniel Ives, a tech analyst from Wedbush Securities, called the move a “frustrating situation for investors” in a Friday morning research note. Apple stocks fell in early trading by 1.9%.
The president also posted that he would impose a “straight 50% Tariff” on the European Union, calling the group of countries “very difficult to deal with.”
“Our discussions with them are going nowhere!” he stated.
European markets reacted swiftly to Mr. Trump’s Friday morning shake-up. The Germany’s DAX fell 1.9%, while the CAC 40 in Paris fell 2.4%. London’s FTSE 100 also shed 1.1%.
Bond market
Yields on 10-year Treasury have eased after ticking up this week, as investors grow increasingly worried over the country’s debt burden, UBS said in a research note.
Moody’s Ratings downgraded the U.S. credit rating on March 16. The downgrade from the top rating of Aaa to Aa1 “reflects the increase over more than a decade in government debt and interest payment ratios to levels that are significantly higher than similarly rated sovereigns,” the credit rating firm said in a statement that same day.
Meanwhile, a House Republican spending bill currently being shepherded through Congress is projected to add trillions to the nation’s debt.
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