NEW YORK: Wall Street stocks resumed their retreat Thursday, falling hard ahead of key US jobs data as markets shrugged off President Trump's latest moves to soften tariff actions.
Trump on Thursday unveiled a temporary rollback to steep tariffs targeting Canada and Mexico, but the shift was not enough to spark a change in stock market activity.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished down one percent at 42.579.08, after spending the entire session in negative territory.
The broad-based S&P 500 slumped 1.8 percent to 5,738.52, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index sank 2.6 percent to 18,069.26.
Art Hogan of B. Riley Wealth Management said the uncertainty around trade policy is “affecting the real economy,“ dragging down consumer sentiment and business investment.
“The longer that goes on, the more the economy slows,“ he said.
Earlier, the European Central Bank cut interest rates again to boost the struggling eurozone, but suggested the easing could be nearing an end and warned of “rising uncertainty” amid massive German spending plans and US tariff threats.
Large tech firms were among the bigger losers Thursday, including Netflix, down 8.5 percent, Tesla, down 5.6 percent and Nvidia, down 5.7 percent.
Markets are looking ahead to Friday's jobs report for February. Weekly jobless claims figures released Thursday were better than expected, while Wednesday's private payroll report from ADP lagged estimates.
