Stock market today: Dow tanks 1,600 points, S&P 500, Nasdaq slide as focus turns to Trump tariffs on China

Wells Fargo warned that despite Trump’s reversal of some tariff threats, lingering and newly imposed trade measures are poised to drive up construction costs.

Key building materials impacted by tariffs include steel, aluminum, lumber, copper, and cement-related products. Residential construction is especially vulnerable due to its reliance on imported HVAC systems, lighting, appliances, plumbing components, and engineering wood.

“Higher material prices, if not fully absorbed by producers, could constrain residential construction and further erode housing affordability,” Charlie Dougherty, director and senior economist for Wells Fargo, wrote in a note to clients.

“Increased construction costs could also be a limitation for commercial real estate development, which has downshifted markedly alongside higher interest rates,” the economist added.

China remains heavily targeted, facing a tariff rate of 145%, which would significantly raise the cost of goods. According to Wells Fargo, about 27% of US homebuilding imports come from China, marking the most significant share after Canada and Mexico.

Canada and Mexico, while exempt from some broader tariffs under USMCA, are still subject to a 25% tariff for noncompliant goods. Sector-specific duties for steel, aluminum, and automotive products remain in place.

Housing stocks are getting crushed, reflecting investor concern over profit margins and construction slowdowns. Shares of Toll Brothers (TOL), DR Horton (DHI), and Lennar Corporation (LEN) were down nearly 4%, compared to the S&P’s decline of nearly 5%.

The markets are reeling once again — less than 24 hours after the S&P 500 had its best single-day rally since 2008 as investors cheered President Trump’s 90-day tariff delay.

The White House confirmed on Thursday morning that the total amount of tariffs on China will now be 145% when accounting for the previous 20% duties already in place. The news came as a surprise to the market as President Trump had posted on Truth Social on Wednesday that the tariff rate charged to China would be 125%.

Stocks hit their lows of the session on the news. The reversal in markets reflects how many Wall Street strategists and economists are talking about the current state of play. On Wednesday, Trump removed the worst-case scenario for investors worried about tariffs slowing economic growth. But that move could just be temporary. It’s only a “90-day pause.”

And as Thursday’s quick shift in the tariff rate reminds investors, all that uncertainty around Trump’s fiscal policy isn’t going anywhere.

“I still think this is more ‘sell the rip’ than ‘buy the dip [in stocks] — lots of problems continue but it is nice to see the President backing off and focusing on China,” Renaissance Macro head of economics Neil Dutta wrote in a note during Wednesday’s rally. “The issue is prolonged uncertainty.”

Oil tumbled as much as 5% on Thursday, erasing gains from the prior session as investors turned their focus on the escalating trade war between China and the US.

West Texas Intermediate futures (CL=F) tanked 5% to hover below $60 per barrel while Brent (BZ=F), the international benchmark, sank 4.5% to hover above $62 per barrel.

The White House confirmed on Thursday that tariffs against Chinese imports stand at 145%, not 125% as previously reported.

Meanwhile, China recently escalated its tariffs against US-made goods to 84% in reaction to the Trump administration’s broad-based trade policy.

On Wednesday crude jumped 4% during a relief rally after Trump announced a 90-day tariff pause on many trading partners, stepping back a sweeping plan revealed on April 2.

However, the pause did not apply to China. The White House imposed even higher tariffs on China.

Losses accelerated on Thursday as the US-China trade war took center stage.

The S&P 500 (GSPC) tumbled 4.4% while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (IXIC) sank 6%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) fell 1,600 points or 4.30%.

Investors focused on the escalation of a China-US trade war as stocks sank following a historic one-day rally on Wednesday after President Trump announced a 90-day pause on many trading partners. However the President raised tariffs on China.

The major averages took a leg lower after the White House confirmed updated figures brought the total levies on Chinese imports to at least 145%, not 125% as previously stated.

Every sector was in the red with Energy stocks leading to the downside as oil fell more than 4%. China is the biggest crude exporter.

Stocks sank to session lows on Thursday morning after the White House confirmed an updated calculation on tariffs against Chinese-made imports, which stands at 145%, not 125% as previously stated.

An executive order signed by President Trump shows the base tariff against China at 125% on top of a prior 20% tariff related to fentanyl trafficking brings the total tariff amount to at least 145%.

The major averages took a leg lower following the new calculation.

By 11:42 a.m. ET, the S&P 500 (GSPC) was down almost 4%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (IXIC) tumbled 4.7%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) fell more than 1,200 points.

Housing costs continued to cool in March for the second straight month, rising at their slowest pace in over three years.

Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed that shelter costs rose 4% from a year earlier in March, less than the 4.2% increase in February and the smallest 12-month increase since November 2021.

Housing costs increased 0.2% on a monthly basis, down from February’s 0.3% monthly increase.

March’s inflation report offered further evidence that this broader cooling in rents is starting to appear in the Consumer Price Index. Due to the Bureau of Labor Statistics collecting rent data only twice a year, this trend has been delayed in appearing in official figures.

The government said the rent index rose 0.3% in March, matching February’s pace of 0.3%.

Meanwhile, prices for owners’ equivalent rent increased 0.4% for the month, ending the four-month streak of 0.3% monthly gains. Owners’ equivalent rent is the estimated amount a homeowner would pay if they rented their property.

Prices for lodging away from home dropped 3.5% in March, a sharp turnaround from February’s 0.2% increase. Experts say this decline was key in easing overall shelter cost pressures.

Delta (DAL) and Walmart (WMT) on Wednesday started what is sure to be a lengthy period of companies cutting or withdrawing their forecasts as a result of tariff uncertainty.

But cutting guidance so an executive team can buy itself time to figure out what constitutes success for its business under this new tariff regime is only one way companies will use these events for cover.

Another way involves finishing off what was started after the pandemic: downsizing.

In 2022, a wave of layoffs blew through the corporate world, most notably the tech industry, as companies realized they’d overhired during the pandemic boom.

And this trend still weighs on decision making today.

At Meta (META), for instance, the company is reportedly continuing to cull staff and push out those it deems underperformers.

AI has also been an accelerant in companies reshaping their workforces. And though predictions about AI coming for everyone’s job are at times hyperbolic, the efficiencies this new tech stack can open up in terms avoiding some hiring in the first place are starting to pop up.

Earlier this week, Shopify CEO Tobi Lutke outlined a new set of principles for how much the company’s staff needs to be incorporating AI into their work. One of Lutke’s key points said teams can’t ask for headcount until they’ve proven AI can’t do the extra work they think they need a human for.

Which gets us back to tariffs.

Every swing in the business cycle — higher rates, a recession, tariffs, etc. — opens two doors for corporate management.

The first requires a business to figure out how to navigate this new variable. This is the stage we’re in today.

The second allows a management team to make decisions they might’ve wanted to make anyway.

Take Mark Zuckerberg’s 2022 memo to Meta staff that announced 11,000 jobs were being cut.

“In this new environment, we need to become more capital efficient,” Zuckerberg wrote.

“We’ve shifted more of our resources onto a smaller number of high priority growth areas — like our AI discovery engine, our ads and business platforms, and our long-term vision for the metaverse. We’ve cut costs across our business, including scaling back budgets, reducing perks, and shrinking our real estate footprint. We’re restructuring teams to increase our efficiency.”

Yes, this announcement came with the company’s stock price down about 60% from its record high. Interest rates were rising as inflation surged. The literal cost of doing business had gone up. Capital efficiency became a larger part of running a social network.

But changing org structures to increase efficiency, cutting perks, trimming budgets, shrinking the real estate footprint?

These are plans that any corporate finance team is ready to deliver to an executive at any time. Just say the word.

Over the last two-and-a-half years since Zuckerberg’s memo, Meta’s business has boomed and its stock price has responded in kind.

When the company made the decision to let 11,000 people go in November 2022, it had reported just a few weeks earlier that its headcount totaled 87,314. In January, the company reported its headcount stood at 74,067 at the end of 2024.

Net income in the three month period ending Sept. 30, 2022 was $4.4 billion; in the quarter ended Dec. 31, 2024, net income was $20.8 billion.

That is efficiency.

And while not every company that makes an efficiency drive realizes these kinds of results, no executive is going to let a change agent like tariffs come and go without taking their shot.

Like the pandemic, the AI boom gave some companies cover to go for new growth projects with the promise of leveraging technology to unlock new markets.

And like the inflation regime and downsizing trend that followed, tariffs and their attendant uncertainty will offer plenty of space for companies to take another crack at ramping up efficiencies in the post-pandemic world.

Nvidia (NVDA), Tesla (TSLA) and Apple (AAPL) all led the ‘Magnificent 7’ stocks lower on Thursday, as the market gave back some of its prior session’s history gains.

AI chip maker Nvidia dropped more than 5% while EV manufacturer Tesla dropped 6%. Social media platform Meta (META) also dropped more than 4% while iPhone maker Apple declined roughly 3.5%.

Tech stocks gave back some of Wednesday’s historic gains sparked by President Trump’s 90-day pause on most countries. Stocks opened lower on Thursday as investors assessed continued trading strains between the US and China after Trump upped tariffs against Chinese imports to a whopping 125%.

The day after President Trump softened his stance on reciprocal tariffs, some of his top economic advisers continued to work out the messaging on where this strategy is taking both Trump’s policies and the US economy in the months ahead.

In a post on X early on Thursday, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said a “Golden Age” is coming and that the economy would soon be “exploding.”

An interesting choice of words, given that Lutnick clearly means an explosion in the positive sense, though a more negative interpretation isn’t far away for those skeptical either of Trump’s temporary pause or his continued pursuit of evening out America’s trade relations.

Late on Wednesday, both The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal published in-depth play-by-play reconstructions of the events that led to Trump’s eventual pivot away from his harshest measures.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and the bond market both emerged as key figures working in the background to push Trump toward a 90-day pause. Lutnick also reportedly began looking for the president to ease off some tariff pledges quickly, after the “Liberation Day” announcements shocked markets.

In the end, though, Trump remains a man on a mission. As the Journal reported: “The episode was classic Trump: He took a drastic action, closely tracked the reaction, kept advisers and allies guessing, and then changed course.”

Early Thursday, stocks were lower, giving back some of the gains from Wednesday’s historic rally as investors take stock of what we learned, who has influence, and return to the place from which we came: A world of advisers backing up strategies they only partially own while investors pressure the administration for better answers, sooner.

Stocks pulled back on Thursday, giving back a fraction of the historic gains from the prior session as a market euphoria following President Trump’s 90-day tariff pause on most trading partners wore off, and traders assessed the impact of a direct China-US trade war on the economy.

The S&P 500 (GSPC) sank 2%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (IXIC) tumbled 2.4%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) fell more than 500 points.

Stocks are coming off their biggest one-day rally since World War II after Trump announced a 90-day pause on non-retaliatory US trading partners, still keeping in place a blanket 10% tariff, while upping levies against China to 125%.

Oil retreated on Monday as China is the biggest crude importer. Energy related stocks dropped the most. Tech also fell as megacap stocks gave back a fraction of the prior session’s gains.

New data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics out Thursday showed that a key inflation metric rose by less than anticipated in March.

On a “core” basis, which strips out the more volatile costs of food and gas, the March Consumer Price Index (CPI) climbed 0.1% from February’s 0.2% monthly gain and lower the 0.3% economists had expected. On an annual basis, prices rose 2.8%, well below economists’ expectations of 3% and lower than the 3.1% increase last month.

Headline consumer prices also rose less than expected. The CPI increased 2.4% over the prior year in March, less than February’s 2.8% increase. The yearly increase was below the 2.5% increase economists had expected.

The index fell 0.1% over the previous month, well below the 0.2% surge seen in February.

“Magnificent Seven” tech stocks are taking a leg lower in premarket trading Thursday as fears returned to growing US-China trade tensions.

Nvidia (NVDA) and Tesla (TSLA) led the early losses, falling nearly 4%, while Apple (AAPL) declined by 3.5%. Amazon (AMZN) was down by around 3%, Meta (META) lost 1.8%, Microsoft (MSFT) fell 1.6%, and Google (GOOG) lost 1.2%

The pullback follows a historic rally led by the Big Tech names. The “Magnificent Seven” stocks gained $1.5 trillion in market value on Wednesday, Reuters reported, though they did not fully recoup the roughly $2 trillion of losses they suffered last week in the aftermath of President Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariff announcement.

Stocks in Europe surged on Thursday, in contrast to on Wall Street, as investors welcomed President Trump’s U-turn on “reciprocal” tariffs for many of the countries targeted.

Helping lift spirits was the EU’s decision to put its retaliatory tariffs against the US on hold, matching Trump’s 90-day pause on his sweeping “reciprocal duties.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 (^STOXX) benchmark climbed 5.1%, having surged by the most in five years at the open.

Germany’s benchmark DAX index (^GDAXI) climbed 5.6%, while France’s CAC (^FCHI) in Paris rose 5%. In London, the FTSE 100 (^FTSE) advanced 4.2%.

US Steel (X) stock fell 10% in premarket after President Trump said he didn’t want the American producer to “go to Japan” suggesting he opposes Nippon Steel’s $14 billion bid for the company.

Shares were last trading at $40.64 each, well below Nippon Steel’s $55 a share offer price.

Trump’s comments come just days after he told a US national security panel on Monday to take a fresh look at the proposed deal, lifting hopes it could get a so-far elusive green light.

Reuters reports:

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Yahoo Finance’s Allie Canal reports:

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Yahoo Finance’s Hamza Shaban reports:

This is the takeaway from today’s Morning Brief. Read more here.

Oil prices dropped as US President Donald Trump continued to escalate his trade war with China. A 90-day pause on ‘reciprocal’ tariffs failed to bolster the commodity’s price globally.

Reuters reports:

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Asian markets rebounded sharply after President Trump announced a 90-day pause on tariffs affecting the majority of countries across the region. However, caution lingered as traders remained uncertain about a long-term resolution, though Japanese and South Korean indexes saw their biggest gains since August.

Bloomberg reports

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