NEW YORK (AP) 鈥� Wall Street鈥檚 sell-off kicked back into gear on Thursday, and a by the whiplash created by President Donald Trump鈥檚 tariffs and uncertainty about the economy fell sharply.
The S&P 500 tumbled 1.8% to resume its slide after a clawed back some of its . The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 427 points, or 1%, and the Nasdaq composite sank 2.6% to finish more than 10% below its record set in December.
Stocks fell even though President Trump from his 25% tariffs on many goods imported from Mexico and Canada. That鈥檚 unlike the bounce stocks got the prior day from his giving
All the moves keep hope alive that Trump may be using tariffs as just a tool for negotiations rather than as a permanent policy and that he may ultimately avoid a worst-case trade war that grinds down economies and .
But Trump is still pressing ahead with other tariffs scheduled to take effect April 2. And the growing pile of is only amping up the uncertainty. It was just on Monday that Trump said there was 鈥渘o room鈥� left for negotiations to avert the tariffs on Mexico and Canada that took effect Tuesday.
鈥淭hese exemptions don鈥檛 do much to resolve the general air of uncertainty,鈥� said Yung-Yu Ma, chief investment officer at BMO Wealth Management. 鈥淏usinesses will still be cautious in the current environment until a lot more of the tariff picture is clear.鈥�
U.S. businesses are already saying they鈥檙e confronting 鈥渃haos鈥� because of all the uncertainty coming out of Washington. while U.S. households are because of the tariffs, which is sapping their confidence.
鈥淢uch will depend on whether these new tariffs prove temporary or are toned down,鈥� according to strategists at BNP Paribas. 鈥淏ut even if they are ultimately removed, we anticipate lasting damage to global economic activity.鈥�
When asked whether his delays on tariffs reflected the slump for the stock market, Trump said Thursday, 鈥淚鈥檓 not even looking at the market.鈥� He earlier in the Oval Office blamed the falling prices on 鈥済lobalist countries and companies that won鈥檛 be doing as well because we鈥檙e taking back things that have been taken from us many years ago.鈥�
Next up for Wall Street is a report coming Friday from the U.S. Labor Department on how many workers U.S. employers hired last month. A solid so far, along with the solid spending by U.S. households that it鈥檚 allowed, have been linchpins in preventing a recession. Economists are expecting to see an accleration in hiring for February.
Some big retailers have been offering warning signals recently about how much U.S. consumers can keep spending.
on Thursday reported slightly weaker revenue for the end of 2024 than analysts expected, though its profit topped expectations. It also gave a forecast for profit in 2025 that fell short of analysts鈥�. Its shares fell 0.7%.
It was a similar story for Victoria鈥檚 Secret, which beat Wall Street鈥檚 fourth-quarter sales and profit forecasts but gave a revenue forecast for the upcoming year that fell short of analysts鈥� expectations. Its stock fell 8.2%.
Making things worse for the U.S. stock market, some of its biggest stars are seeing their glow dim.
Semiconductor companies and their suppliers were particularly heavy weights, after soaring to staggering heights because of the frenzy around .
Marvell Technology lost nearly a fifth of its value and dropped 19.8% even though it reported results for the latest quarter that edged past analysts鈥� forecasts. It also said it expects revenue growth in the current quarter of more than 60% from the prior year, give or take a bit.
But that wasn鈥檛 enough for investors, who have grown used to AI-related companies trouncing expectations.
The poster child of the AI boom, , fell 5.7%, while Broadcom lost 6.3% ahead of the release of its earnings report.
AI superstars had been dominating Wall Street for years and helped it run to record after record. But those soaring performances, including a nearly 820% surge for Nvidia from 2023 into 2024, had critics saying prices had grown too expensive. They鈥檙e also as Chinese companies develop their own AI offerings, with DeepSeek famously saying it didn鈥檛 need to use the industry鈥檚 most expensive chips.
All told, the S&P 500 fell 104.11 points to 5,738.52. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 427.51 to 42,579.08. The Nasdaq composite tumbled 483.48 to 18,069.26.
In stock markets abroad, indexes were mixed in Europe after the , as was widely expected.
German stocks rallied 1.5% as the market continues to feel reverberations from an agreement by the two parties that will form the country鈥檚 next government to . It鈥檚 a and opens the way for new borrowing and spending over the next decade.
Stocks also rose in Asia, including jumps of 3.3% in Hong Kong and 1.2% in Shanghai.
China鈥檚 commerce minister said Thursday that his country and that its economy can weather imposed by Trump, though he added that there are 鈥渘o winners in a trade war.鈥�
In the bond market, the 10-year Treasury yield edged up to 4.29% from 4.28% late Wednesday.
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AP Business Writers Matt Ott, Elaine Kurtenbach, Christopher Rugaber and Josh Boak contributed.
Stan Choe, The Associated Press
