Stocks tumble on latest tariffs, soft jobs data
Also weighing on equities was a tumble of nearly 9% in Amazon.com (AMZN.O), opens new tab shares after the company posted quarterly results but failed to meet lofty expectations for its Amazon Web Services cloud computing unit.
Just hours before the tariff deadline on Friday, President Donald Trump signed an executive order imposing duties on U.S. imports from countries, including Canada, Brazil, India and Taiwan, in his latest round of levies as countries attempted to seek ways to reach better deals.
Further denting confidence in the economic picture, data showed U.S. job growth slowed more than expected in July while the prior month's report was revised sharply lower, indicating the labor market may be starting to crack.
The report significantly pushed up expectations the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates at its September meeting.
"There's no way to pretty-up this report. Previous months were revised significantly lower where the labor market has been on stall-speed," said Brian Jacobsen, Chief Economist at Annex Wealth Management in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin.
"Last year the Fed messed up by not cutting in July so they did a catch-up cut at their next meeting. They'll likely have to do the same thing this year."
Market expectations the Fed will cut rates by at least 25 basis points at its September meeting stood at 80.9%, according to CME's FedWatch Tool, opens new tab, up from 37.7% in the prior session.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJI), opens new tab fell 604.56 points, or 1.37%, to 43,526.42. The S&P 500 (.SPX), opens new tab lost 112.80 points, or 1.78%, to 6,226.59 and the Nasdaq Composite (.IXIC), opens new tab lost 512.52 points, or 2.43%, to 20,609.93.
Both the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq were on track for their worst single-day performance since April 21 and each of the three major indexes were on track for weekly losses.
The CBOE Volatility index (.VIX), opens new tab, also known as Wall Street's fear gauge, jumped to its highest level since June 23 and was last at 20.95.
Amazon was the biggest drag on the Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq and pushed the consumer discretionary sector (.SPLRCD), opens new tab, down nearly 4%. The defensive consumer staples (.SPLRCS), opens new tab index was the best performing S&P sector on the day.
Also reporting earnings was Apple (AAPL.O), opens new tab, which fell 2% after it posted a 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.
Stocks briefly extended declines after Trump said he ordered the commissioner of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Erika L. McEntarfer, to be fired in the wake of the jobs data.
In contrast to the broad declines, Reddit (RDDT.N), opens new tab surged 19.4% after it reported quarterly results that exceeded Street expectations, boosted by an AI-focused advertising strategy and strong user engagement.
Declining issues outnumbered advancers by a 2.48-to-1 ratio on the NYSE, and by a 3.17-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.
The S&P 500 posted eight new 52-week highs and 28 new lows, while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 21 new highs and 191 new lows.
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