Wall Street pointed toward losses before the opening bell Wednesday before President Donald Trump reveals details about the latest round of U.S. tariffs on trading partners.
Futures for the S&P 500 slid 0.6%, while futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.5%. Futures for the Nasdaq, where many of the big technology companies trade and already in correction territory, slipped another 0.7%.
Every sector in the S&P is in the red save for consumer staples. Sectors containing autos, transportation, industrials and technology were hardest hit.
Trump’s new tariffs — coming on what the president has called “Liberation Day” — is an attempt to bring manufacturing back to the United States while punishing countries for what he has said are years of unfair trade practices. However, most economists think the tariffs threaten to plunge the economy into a recession while laying waste to decades-old alliances.
The reciprocal tariffs Trump plans to announce follow similar recent announcements of 25% taxes on auto imports; levies against China, Canada and Mexico; and expanded tariffs on steel and aluminum. Trump has also put tariffs against countries that import oil from Venezuela and plans separate import taxes on pharmaceutical drugs, lumber, copper and computer chips.
Markets have been particularly shaky recently, and momentum has been swinging from hour to hour because of the uncertainty around Trump’s tariffs — and by how much they will worsen inflation and erode growth for economies.
Gold, of course, a safe harbor for investors in rocky times, has been trading at record highs and Wednesday was no exception.
Companies are already feeling effects from Trump’s trade war, even before Wednesday’s tariff announcement, and markets have swung wildly for weeks.
“Amid the uncertainty on tariffs details, risk sentiments were broadly fragile,” Tan Jing Yi at Mizuho Bank said in a commentary.
Even if Trump announces less-punishing tariffs than feared, the herky-jerky rollout of his trade strategy may by itself create enough anxiety to spur U.S. households and businesses to freeze their spending, which would damage the economy.
Elsewhere, in Europe at midday France’s CAC 40 declined 0.7%, while Germany’s DAX slid nearly 1.3% and Britain’s FTSE 100 fell 0.6%.
In Asian trading, Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 gained 0.3% to finish at 35,725.87.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was virtually unchanged at 23,202.53, while the Shanghai Composite inched up less than 0.1% to 3,350.13.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 added 0.1% to 7,934.50. South Korea’s Kospi dipped 0.6% to 2,505.86.
