US Stocks Tumble After Trump Threatens ‘Massive’ Tariffs on China
Wall Street stocks tumbled into negative territory Friday after President Donald Trump threatened “massive” tariffs on Chinese imports, reviving a trade war.
The broad-based S&P 500 dropped 1.3 percent to 6,650.93, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index fell 1.7 percent to 22,638.59.
Trump threatened the action, saying in a social media post that China is “becoming very hostile” in imposing new export controls on rare earths as he called off a meeting with Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping that had been planned for later this month.
“One of the Policies that we are calculating at this moment is a massive increase of Tariffs on Chinese products coming into the United States of America,” Trump said, adding that he was considering “many other countermeasures.”
The statement jolted Wall Street out of a low-key drift higher this month that had lifted major indices to records in recent days despite a government shutdown.
Trump’s move comes after China’s commerce ministry announced new controls Thursday on the export of rare-earth minerals, which are used to make magnets crucial to the auto, electronics and defense industries.
China on Friday also said it would impose “special port fees” on ships operated by and built in the United States after Washington announced charges for Chinese-linked ships in April.
