Wall Street was sluggish in the early going Tuesday as President Donald Trump’s trade policies weighed on markets, the Associated Press reports. Futures for the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average were virtually unchanged before the opening bell. Futures for the technology-centered Nasdaq were off 0.3% after media reports that the Trump administration is further tightening trade restrictions on China’s semiconductor industry.
Trump said Monday that tariff hikes on imports from America’s neighbors Canada and Mexico will move ahead after a one-month delay. He also has put an extra 10% tariff on Chinese imports, citing that country’s role in the production of the opioid fentanyl.
Major companies have warned about uncertainty over U.S. trade policies, while the University of Michigan’s latest consumer sentiment index plunged by roughly 10% over the past month in part due to fears about tariffs and worsening inflation.
In equities trading, Home Depot fell about 2% before the bell after its forecast disappointed investors. The decline comes even after the hardware chain beat Wall Street sales and profit forecasts and posted its first increase in same-store sales in two years.
Bitcoin tumbled another 3%, to $88,871, a three-month low.
