All three U.S. stock indexes closed lower on Friday after President Donald Trump said he plans to announce reciprocal tariffs on many countries next week, following weak jobs and consumer sentiment data. Trump did not identify which countries would be hit but suggested it would be a broad effort that could also help solve U.S. budget problems.
“Today, the tone was set early with the payroll report and very quickly people ignored that as soon as tariff conversations started coming back in,” said Mark Hackett, chief market strategist at Nationwide. Markets had a dismal start to the week when Trump announced sweeping trade tariffs over the weekend, before he suspended the levies on goods from Mexico and Canada on Monday for a month. A host of strong earnings in recent days offset the weak start.
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Earlier in the day, a survey showed U.S. consumer sentiment dropped unexpectedly in February to a seven-month low and inflation expectations rocketed, with households seeing inflation over the next year surging to 4.3% – the highest since November 2023. Another report showed U.S. job growth slowed more than expected in January after robust gains in the prior two months, although a 4% unemployment rate will likely give the Fed cover to hold off cutting interest rates at least until June.
The final employment report under former President Joe Biden’s administration showed 598,000 fewer jobs were created in the 12 months through last March than previously estimated. The final payrolls benchmark revision, however, was less than the reduction of 818,000 jobs estimated back in August. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 444.23 points, or 0.99%, to 44,303.40, the S&P 500 lost 57.58 points, or 0.95%, to 6,025.99 and the Nasdaq Composite lost 268.59 points, or 1.36%, to 19,523.40.
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All three indexes were down for the week, with the Dow breaking a three-week streak of gains and ending 0.54% lower. The S&P fell 0.24% while the Nasdaq was down 0.53%.All 11 S&P 500 sectors traded lower on Friday, with consumer discretionary leading losses with a roughly 2.5% fall. Uber jumped 6.6% after billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman disclosed a large stake in the company.
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