New York: U.S. stocks tanked on Friday, as traders were unsettled by a mix of tariff and inflation news that added to the week’s volatility.
U.S. stocks broadly declined, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average falling by 444.23 points, which is equivalent to a drop of 0.99 percent. The S&P 500 traded down by roughly 0.95 percent, and the Nasdaq Composite slid by 1.36 percent. Declines were observed across all sectors of the S&P 500 as investors reacted to prevailing economic uncertainty.
The market took a hit after U.S. President Donald Trump announced his plans for reciprocal tariffs on trading partners, a move that could lead to an across-the-board increase in tariff rates to match those charged by the United States.
“I’ll be announcing that next week reciprocal trade, so that we’re treated evenly with other countries,” said Trump during a meeting with visiting Japanese prime minister. “We’ll have a news conference, and we’ll lay it out pretty simple.”
The preliminary reading of the University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment index indicated that consumer confidence in February fell to 67.8, notably lower than 71.3 anticipated by economists polled by Dow Jones. “Year-ahead inflation expectations jumped up from 3.3 percent last month to 4.3 percent this month, the highest reading since November 2023 and marking two consecutive months of unusually large increases,” said the survey.
On the jobs front, the United States added 143,000 positions in January – a figure that fell short of December’s revised total of 307,000 and the 169,000 forecast by economists – while the unemployment rate eased to 4 percent, below the expected 4.1 percent, according to the data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics released Friday.
Chicago Federal Reserve President Austan Goolsbee called the jobs report “solid” and said it showed “we’re settling into something like full employment.” He added that the central bank “may be on hold” for now, but he still sees interest rates moving lower over the “next 12-18 months.”
In corporate news, Uber shares jumped more than 8 percent to a session high after billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman, CEO of Pershing Square Capital Management, revealed that his firm holds over 30 million shares in the ride-share company, a stake valued at more than 2 billion U.S. dollars.
