US markets closed lower amid renewed fears of trade war

07 Apr 2018 Evaluate

The US markets closed lower on Friday, led by a selloff in industrials and financials, as investors continued to fret over an escalating China-US trade fight. The main indexes sold off in early trade following President Donald Trump’s proposal of fresh tariffs against China. The White House, in a statement released after the market closed on Thursday, said that Trump asked the US Trade Representative to consider an extra $100 billion in Chinese goods to face tariffs and to identify the products that could be targeted. China’s commerce ministry responded to the latest tariff threat by saying it will respond with countermeasures if needed. Separately, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell backed a patient approach to raising interest rates. He added that the FOMC’s patient approach has paid dividends and contributed to the strong economy we have today. The Fed chairman said going slow on rate hikes has also reduced the risk of an unforeseen blow to the economy that might have pushed the economy into recession. Powell said incoming data could change his views on the appropriate monetary policy.

On the economy front, the US gained just 103,000 new jobs in March to mark the smallest increase since last fall, but the latest report on employment still shows the tightest labor market in nearly two decades. The unemployment rate, however, clung to a 17-year low of 4.1% and it’s expected to go even lower in the months ahead. Job openings are at a record high and big and small firms alike say they plan to add more workers. Although the number of new jobs created slowed sharply from February’s revised 326,000 increase, the US added an average of 202,000 jobs a month in the first quarter. That’s still faster than the average gains in 2017 and 2016. The tight labor market is slowly pushing up worker pay. Hourly wages rose 8 cents, or 0.3%, to $26.82 in March. The 12-month increase in pay edged up to 2.7% from 2.6%. For much of the nearly nine-year-old expansion, wage gains averaged around 2% a year or a bit less.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 572.46 points or 2.34 percent to 23,932.76, the Nasdaq dropped 161.441 points or 2.28 percent to 6,915.11, while the S&P 500 was down by 58.37 points or 2.19 percent to 2,604.47.

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