NEW YORK: Wall Street stocks opened sharply lower Wednesday after a weak GDP report deepened concerns about an economic slowdown in light of uncertainty over US President Donald Trump’s trade policy.
About 15 minutes into trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average stood at 39,877.96, down 1.6 percent.
The broad-based S&P 500 dropped 2.0 percent to 5,449.09, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index slumped 2.6 percent to 17,005.71.
The gross domestic product of the world’s largest economy decreased at an annual rate of 0.3 percent in the first quarter, lagging analyst expectations.
Wall Street choppy as markets juggle trade war news
Part of the contraction was due to a surge in imports from businesses seeking to get ahead of Trump’s myriad tariffs. Economists worry that uncertainty over Trump’s changing policy is also freezing corporate capital budgets and depressing consumer spending.
“This was a bad report and we’re seeing the market sell off pretty strongly on the news,” said Adam Sarhan of 50 Park Investments, who added that “fear of a recession” has been a major driver of the stock market.
Besides the GDP data, payroll firm ADP reported that private sector employment grew by 62,000 in April, a sharp slowdown from a revised 147,000 in March.
Among companies reporting results, Starbucks shares fell 7.9 percent after the coffee giant reported about a 50-percent fall in profits to $384.2 million.
Mondelez rose 3.3 percent as it reported flat revenues but confirmed its full-year forecast.
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