US: S&P 500 ends 1.6% lower as tariff angst kills stocks rally

[NEW YORK] Wall Street stocks tumbled again on Tuesday as initially successful efforts to rebound from big losses faded amid worries over US President Donald Trump’s trade wars.

All three major indices finished firmly in the red, with the S&P 500 shedding 1.6 per cent to 4,982.77, its first close below 5,000 points in nearly a year.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended down 0.8 per cent at 37,645.59, a swing of about 1,780 points below its session peak, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index shed 2.2 per cent to 15,267.91.

After three days of losses, Wall Street stocks opened buoyantly as traders embraced talk of White House negotiations with Japan and South Korea in the hopes Trump’s trade onslaught might be short-lived.

But investors grew edgy as the day progressed with no concrete progress. Meanwhile, the White House confirmed plans for massive tariffs on China to go into effect overnight.

“Obviously investors are clamoring for clarity and there still isn’t any,” said Jack Ablin of Cresset Capital, who estimated that the market now sees a greater than 50 per cent chance of a US recession.

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Stocks have been in free fall since Trump’s “Liberation Day” event announcing tariffs on major US trading partners last Wednesday.

White House officials have signalled openness to dealmaking while blasting China for enacting sharp retaliatory tariffs in response to the new US levies.

Trump plans to impose another 50 per cent duty on Chinese goods at midnight, bringing the additional rate on Chinese products to 104 per cent.

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All 11 sectors in the S&P 500 finished the day in the red, while most of the Dow was also in negative territory.

Especially big losers in the blue-chip index included Apple, down five per cent and Nike, down 4.2 per cent.

But UnitedHealth Group surged 5.4 per cent after the Trump administration finalised a rule boosting payments to insurers under the government Medicare programme. AFP