US markets close mostly lower amid fears of looming global trade war

08 Apr 2025 Evaluate

The US markets spent the session swinging back and forth across the unchanged line before eventually closing mostly lower on Monday. The markets initially extended the sell-off seen over the two previous sessions amid ongoing concerns about the impact of President Donald Trump's new tariffs and retaliatory moves by U.S. trade partners. However, some support came as the traders opted to buys stocks at reduced levels after the major averages hit their lowest intraday levels in over a year. The market also reacted to anonymous report indicating Trump is considering pausing new tariffs for 90 days, although the White House has since dismissed the report. Nonetheless, traders chose to stay away from risky bets after Trump threatened to impose an additional 50 percent tariff on Chinese goods unless the country withdraws its new 34 percent tariff on U.S. goods which kept the investors on edge.

On sectoral front, housing stocks finished the day sharply lower, dragging the Philadelphia Housing Sector Index down by 3.6 percent to its lowest closing level in well over a year. Substantial weakness was also visible among commercial real estate stocks, as reflected by the 2.6 percent plunge by the Dow Jones U.S. Real Estate Index. Utilities, pharmaceutical and telecom stocks also showed notable moves to the downside, while semiconductor stocks rallied, driving the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index up by 2.7 percent.

Dow Jones Industrial Average slid 349.26 points or 0.91 percent to 37,965.60 and S&P 500 was down by 11.83 points or 0.23 percent to 5,062.25, while Nasdaq increased by 15.48 points or 0.1 percent to 15,603.26.

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