NEW YORK: Wall Street stocks opened lower Tuesday as new US tariffs kicked in, spurring retaliatory moves by trading partners and investor unease about the effects on the economy.
New US tariffs on Canadian, Mexican and Chinese goods went into effect overnight. All three countries have either imposed their own retaliatory tariffs or said they will.
About 15 minutes into trading, the broad-based S&P 500 was down 1.1 percent at 5,785.57, below the level it traded on November 6, the day after Trump’s election win.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average also dropped 1.1 percent to 42,712.06, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index shed 1.2 percent to 18,125.23.
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“Due to the uncertainty surrounding the tariffs, the stock market has erased the gains from the ‘Trump bump’ following the presidential election, and the expected upward pressure on prices is giving investors pause,” said Gustavo Flores-Macias, a professor of public policy at Cornell University.
Among individual companies, Best Buy tumbled 13.1 percent despite reporting solid earnings as the electronics retailer signaled they expect price hikes due to tariffs.
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