Wall Street ended sharply lower as investors grew increasingly anxious about a potential escalation in Donald Trump’s trade war. The S&P 500 dropped 1.1% to close at 5,712.20, the Nasdaq Composite slid 2% to 17,899.02, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.3% to 42,454.79.
Trump Warns of Increased Tariffs on Canada and EU
Donald Trump issued a fresh trade warning on Thursday, stating that the United States could impose significantly higher tariffs on the European Union and Canada if the two allies cooperate in ways that “harm the U.S. economy.”
In a post on Truth Social, Trump declared: “If the European Union works with Canada in order to do economic harm to the USA, large-scale tariffs, far larger than currently planned, will be placed on them both in order to protect the best friend that each of those two countries has ever had.”
US-listed auto giants took a hit in after-hours trading, with General Motors, Ford, and Stellantis all posting significant losses.
In the bond market, yields on 10-year US Treasury notes edged higher, rising to 4.353% from 4.336% the previous day.
Asian markets also saw broad declines. Japan’s Nikkei fell 1.2%, dragged down by sharp losses in carmakers. Toyota dropped 3.4%, while Mazda and Subaru each plunged around 6%.
South Korea’s KOSPI slid 0.7%, and Chinese electric vehicle stocks followed suit — Nio fell 2.8% and Xpeng slipped 1.1%.
China’s blue-chip CSI 300 index and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng both lost 0.3%, while MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan declined by 0.6%.
