The US markets ended sharply lower on Friday, as investors looked past signs of escalating Washington-Beijing trade tensions, an issue that is seen as a major potential headwind but which has thus far been more bark than bite for equities. President Donald Trump approved tariffs on about $50 billion of Chinese goods, marking the latest escalation in the trade spat between the two countries. Trump said that the tariffs on China are a response to what he calls the country's unfair trade practices, including requiring US companies to effectively hand over innovations and other competitively sensitive information in exchange for access to the massive Chinese market. Beijing has said it intends to assess tariffs on a corresponding amount of US goods, while Trump said the US would pursue more tariffs if China retaliates. Subsequently, Trump said there was no trade war with China.
Besides, traders overlooked the latest policy meeting by the Bank of Japan. The central bank stuck to its easing policy, keeping short-term interest rate at minus 0.1% and its target for the yield on 10-year government bonds at around 0%. The decision comes just a day after the European Central Bank said it plans to ends its quantitative easing program in December, but will keep rates at record lows at least until next summer. On the economic front, the Empire State manufacturing survey rose 4.9 points in June to a reading of 25, the highest reading since October. Separately, manufacturing production declined 0.7% in May, while capacity utilization dropped to 77.9% from 78.1% in the previous month. The University of Michigan’s gauge of consumer sentiment rose to 99.3 in June.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 84.83 points or 0.34 percent to 25,090.48, the Nasdaq slipped 14.66 points or 0.19 percent to 7,746.38 and the S&P 500 was down by 2.83 points or 0.10% to 2779.66.
Start Research-backed Investing ...Now. Subscribe to Sapphire
MoneyWorks4Me is a SEBI-registered Investment Adviser (IA) dedicated to helping investors build long-term wealth through transparent, research-driven, conflict-free guidance. Founded in 2008, we started our journey as a Research Analyst (RA), providing deep fundamental analysis, intrinsic value insights, and long-term investing frameworks for Indian equities. In 2017, we transitioned to a full-fledged SEBI-registered Investment Adviser, strengthening our commitment to acting as a fiduciary—always putting the investor’s interest first.
To become India’s most trusted, research-powered fiduciary advisory platform—where every investor, regardless of experience, can make calm, confident, and well-reasoned investment decisions.
MoneyWorks4Me ensures this through: