US stocks closed lower Wednesday as President Trump prepared to unveil new tariffs on US auto imports.
The benchmark S&P 500 (^GSPC) was down more than 1.1%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) fell about 0.4%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) led the losses, sliding over 2%. Tech leaders Nvidia (NVDA) and Tesla (TSLA) both closed down more than 5%.
Stocks are on shifting sands as markets respond to changes in tone from Trump on coming tariffs. The White House press secretary said Wednesday that Trump would hold a press conference at 4 p.m. ET to announce new tariffs on auto imports, hitting Tesla and other auto stocks like GM (GM) and Ford (F).
Meanwhile, Wall Street is focused on how “flexible” Trump will be in the reciprocal duties set to take effect on April 2.
In another tone shift, Trump told Newsmax on Tuesday that he “doesn’t want to have too many exceptions” to the levies — a potential swing back to the hard line seen earlier in March. Those threats directed at the EU and Canada fueled a sell-off that pushed the S&P 500 into correction territory.
Also, the White House appears to be accelerating its plans for copper levies. Tariffs on copper imports could be coming within several weeks, months ahead of a deadline for implementing the measures, Bloomberg reported. Copper (HG=F) prices surged to a record on the heels of the news.
In corporates, GameStop (GME) stock jumped over 11% after the video game retailer’s approval of a plan to buy bitcoin (BTC-USD) with its cash holdings.
In other economic news, orders for durable goods came in stronger than expected in February, data released Wednesday showed. The 0.9% rise topped expectations for a drop of 1% but undershot January’s 3.3% reading.
