Wall St selloff sparked by Trump tariffs, Amazon results, weak payrolls
Hours ahead of the tariff deadline, President Donald Trump signed an executive order imposing duties on U.S. imports from countries including Canada, Brazil, India and Taiwan.
Data showed U.S. job growth slowed more than expected in July while the prior month's data was revised sharply lower, pointing to a sharp moderation in the labor market.
'This was a pretty disappointing report … markets are getting a little bit more worried about the state of the labor market in the aftermath of today's report,' said BeiChen Lin, senior investment strategist at Russell Investments.
Following the data, traders have raised their bets for a September interest rate cut to 81.9%, according to CME's FedWatch tool.
At 9:52 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 633.77 points, or 1.44%, to 43,491.55, the S&P 500 lost 107.59 points, or 1.70%, to 6,231.80 and the Nasdaq Composite lost 483.70 points, or 2.29%, to 20,638.74.
The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq fell to a more than two-month low each, while the Dow slipped to an over one-month low.
Wall St cools after Microsoft's $4trn moment
The CBOE Volatility index, also known as Wall Street's fear gauge, jumped to a near six-week high and was last up 20.66 points.
Eight of the 11 S&P 500 sector indexes declined, led by consumer discretionary, which was down 3.4% as Amazon slid 6.7%. The company's growth in its cloud computing unit failed to impress investors, in contrast to robust gains reported by AI-focused rivals Alphabet and Microsoft.
Technology and communication services indexes fell 1.9% and 1.5%, respectively.
Apple posted its current-quarter revenue forecast well above Wall Street estimates, but CEO Tim Cook warned U.S. tariffs would add $1.1 billion in costs over the period. The stock edged 0.2% lower.
Most major megacap stocks fell, with Nvidia down 3.1%, Tesla falling 2.6%, Meta Platforms down 2.5%, and Alphabet losing 1.4%.
Financials fell 2.2%, with Coinbase Global falling 16.2% after the crypto exchange reported a drop in adjusted profit for the second quarter.
Industrial tools supplier WW Grainger dropped 9.2% after slashing its forecast for annual profit.
Trump said on Friday the Federal Reserve's board should assume control if the central bank's chair, Jerome Powell, continues to refuse to lower interest rates.
Powell, despite pressure from Trump to cut rates, has indicated the central bank was in no rush to do so.
The day's sharp losses put the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq on track for weekly losses, offsetting the week's earlier gains on signs of economic resilience, AI boost, and key U.S. trade agreements with top partners such as the European Union and South Korea.
Declining issues outnumbered advancers by a 2.93-to-1 ratio on the NYSE, and by a 4.43-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.
The S&P 500 posted six new 52-week highs and 18 new lows, while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 8 new highs and 131 new lows.
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