Stocks slump after Trump tariff talk sparks huge reversal
Stocks reversed gains, hitting the skids on Friday after the White House press secretary confirmed that President Trump intends to enact tariffs of 25% on imports from Mexico and Canada, as well as 10% on China, beginning February 1 (tomorrow).
The S&P 500 ended 0.5% lower after having been up 0.8%.
The Nasdaq 100, which had briefly erased all its DeepSeek-driven losses on Friday, finished down 0.1% for the day.
The Russell 2000 gave back 0.9%.
Every S&P 500 sector ETF retreated, save for communication services. Energy stocks were a notable laggard, as tariffs on Canadian oil would wreak havoc on the operations of refineries, particularly in the Midwest.
The bifurcation between the two top chip stocks continued: Broadcom managed to hold on to a chunk of its gains, while Nvidia finished deep in the red. For the week, Nvidia underperformed the S&P 500 by the most since 2018.
Intel, despite reporting better-than-expected earnings, got dragged down in the sell-off.
Australian software company Atlassian posted blockbuster earnings that prompted Wall Street analysts to hike their price targets on the stock en masse.
Vertex Pharmaceuticals caught a big bid after the US FDA approved its novel non-opioid painkiller. AbbVie’s strong earnings and guidance also propelled the stock higher.
Walgreens cratered after suspending its quarterly dividend, which it had been paying out since the depths of the Great Depression.
