Stock market today: S&P 500, Dow, Nasdaq waver as investors weigh Trump’s tariff escalation

Yahoo Finance’s Claire Boston reports:

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Gold (GC=F) hit new highs on Thursday as concerns of an escalating trade war heightened.

Futures touched their 17th record of the year just north of $3,060 after President Trump’s auto tariff announcement on Wednesday stoked further fears of a trade war.

A move lower in the US dollar (DX-Y.NYB) index also helped drive prices higher.

Earlier this week, analysts at Bank of America raised their price target on gold to $3,500 per ounce over the coming 18 months if investments increase by 10% due to more buying from China, central banks, and continued purchases of physically backed ETFs.

“Uncertainty around Trump Administration trade policies could continue to push the USD lower, further supporting gold prices near-term,” BofA analysts wrote in a note to clients. “In our view, a broad rebalancing of America’s twin deficits could be bullish gold too.”

The researchers cited gold’s surge above their $3,000 price target, as “a confluence of factors, mostly driven by the Trump Administration’s economic policy mix, have pushed investors to increase their allocations to the yellow metal.”

Wall Street analysts have been playing catchup, as many $3000 calls for gold came early this year. Macquarie Group recently predicted the precious metal will touch $3,500 in the third quarter.

Year to date, gold is up 17%.

Tesla stock (TSLA) rose to a session high of 6% on Thursday as investors may be viewing the EV maker as less exposed than other vehicle makers to the Trump administration’s newly announced auto tariffs.

With plants in California and Texas, Tesla shares rallied after President Trump signed off on 25% levies on foreign-made autos.

Even though Wall Street views the EV maker as the least exposed to tariffs, CEO Elon Musk indicated in a post on X that his company would not go “unscathed.”

Meanwhile, GM (GM) sank 6% while Stellantis (STLA) and Ford (F) slipped 1% on concerns of tariff impacts. All three companies build vehicles in Canada, Mexico, and China.

In a note ahead of the tariff announcements earlier this week, CFRA’s Garrett Nelson wrote, “We consider GM to be the most exposed to the tariffs on Mexico and Canada, followed by STLA and F. TSLA screens as the least exposed.”

Stocks trimmed losses on Thursday morning after all three major averages opened in negative territory.

The S&P 500 (^GSPC) hovered near the flat line while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) pared losses to slip 0.1%.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) briefly flipped into green territory after falling as much as 0.6%, or more than 200 points.

US automaker stocks were still broadly lower after President Trump signed off on 25% tariffs on foreign-made autos on Wednesday.

Stocks slipped on Thursday after President Trump announced tariffs on auto imports, raising concerns of a full-blown trade war and economic slowdown.

The S&P 500 (^GSPC) dropped 0.3% while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) also slipped 0.3%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) fell 0.3% after all three major averages declined in the prior session.

On Wednesday Trump signed off on 25% tariffs on foreign-made autos, starting on April 2, the same day that reciprocal levies are set to take effect.

Wall Street anticipates the latest tariff announcement will impact the broader vehicle industry.

“We think the proposed tariffs as announced would deliver a big hit to the auto industry, stoking higher costs, higher prices, and a sharp decline in US sales,” said Solita Marcelli, chief investment officer Americas at UBS Global Wealth Management.

Trump announced new 25% auto tariffs on Wednesday evening, and markets have been quick to reprice autos on the news.

“In our view these initial tariffs (if they hold in their current form) would be a hurricane-like headwind to foreign (and many US) automakers and ultimately push the average price of cars up $5k to $10k depending on the make/model/price point,” Wedbush analyst Dan Ives wrote in a note. (You can read more about Wall Street’s reaction here.)

Here’s where auto stocks are trading premarket:

A slew of economic data hit the tape at 8:30 a.m. on Thursday.

In the latest sign that layoffs remain low, data from the Department of Labor released Thursday morning showed 224,000 initial jobless claims were filed in the week ending March 22, down from 225,000 the week prior and below the 221,000 economists had expected.

Meanwhile, 1.86 million continuing claims were filed, down from the 1.88 million seen the week prior. Economists largely believe the continued low number of weekly jobless claims combined with relatively steady continuing claims reflects a “low hire, low fire” type of labor market.

In a separate release from the Bureau of Economic Analysis, the third estimate of fourth quarter Gross Domestic Product (GDP) showed the US economy grew at annualized rate of 2.4% in the final quarter of 2024, up from a prior reading of 2.3%. Meanwhile, revisions also showed core PCE, a closely tracked inflation gauge by the Federal Reserve, increased 2.6% in the fourth quarter, lower than the initial reading of 2.7%.

GameStop’s (GME) shares fell almost 7% in premarket after the company said it is looking to raise $1.3 billion to buy bitcoin (BTC-USD).

The games retailer plans to raise the funds via convertible senior notes.

Yahoo Finance’s Josh Schafer reports:

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Tesla (TSLA) CEO Elon Musk has commented on X that Tesla will face “significant” impact from President Trump’s auto tariffs.

The statement was made in response to an infographic detailing the amount various automakers (including Ford (F), Toyota (TM), and GM (GM)) will be affected by Trump’s tariffs on “foreign-made vehicles” — with Tesla listed as being 100% US-made.