Dow drops 400 points to start week as investors look for progress on Trump trade deals
Stocks fell again on Monday following yet another negative trading week for Wall Street, as investors receive little signs of progress on global trade talks.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average traded 440 points lower, or 1.2%. The S&P 500 shed 1.4%, and the Nasdaq Composite lost 1.8%.
Tesla shares dropped 5%, while Nvidia dropped 4%. AMD, Meta Platforms and Amazon all slid around 2%.
There was no news of progress on any trade deals over the weekend, hurting investor confidence. If anything, tensions seemed to increase with China with the country warning other nations not to strike any deal with the U.S. that would hurt China.
The moves come after each of the three major averages logged a third weekly decline in the last four trading weeks. The S&P 500 fell 1.5% last week, while the Dow and Nasdaq each lost more than 2%.
Heightened concern surrounding President Donald Trump’s tariffs have weighed on Wall Street recently. The major averages are down around 7% since April 2, when Trump announced a raft of levies on imports from other countries.
Over the weekend, Chicago Federal Reserve President Austan Goolsbee said in a CBS interview that the tariffs could lead U.S. economic activity to “fall off” by the summer. That follows Fed Chair Jerome Powell expressing concern Wednesday that the president’s levies could present difficulty for the central bank in controlling inflation and spurring economic growth.
Questions around the Fed’s independence have also hurt stocks. Trump on Thursday called on the Fed to cut interest rates, even hinting at Powell’s “termination.” On Friday, White House economic advisor Kevin Hassett said that the president and his team were studying whether firing Powell was an option.
Source : CNBC
