Wall Street pointed toward losses in the premarket Wednesday before President Donald Trump revealed details about the latest round of U.S. tariffs on trading partners, the Associated Press reports.
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” — are 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.
Gold, 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.
