US Equity Indexes Plunge This Week as China Retaliates Against US Tariffs

04:51 PM EDT, 04/04/2025 (MT Newswires) -- US equity indexes plunged this week after China and Canada retaliated against the Trump administration's punitive import levies, boosting the risk to economic growth from a global trade war.

* The S&P 500 closed at 5,074.08 on Friday versus 5,580.94 a week earlier. The Nasdaq Composite tumbled to 15,587.79 from 17,322.99, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average slumped to 38,314.86 from 41,583.90.

* Energy, technology and financials posted the biggest weekly declines.

* China on Friday imposed a 34% levy on US exports to China. Canada on Thursday imposed a 25% levy on all vehicles imported from the US not compliant with a tripartite trade agreement involving Mexico, Canada, and the US.

* Deutsche Bank economists expect proposed US tariffs, if implemented, "could easily knock around 1% to 1.5% off US growth this year while adding a similar amount to core PCE," the Fed's preferred inflation measure.

* The probability of a 25 basis-point interest-rate cut in May soared to 34% Friday from 22% on Thursday, the CME FedWatch Tool showed.

* The US 10-year Treasury yield traded at 4% late Friday, the lowest since October. The two-year rate touched a 52-week low of 3.47% intraday.

* Big tech companies slumped this week, paced by Nvidia ( NVDA ) , Apple (AAPL) and Meta Platforms ( META ) . "If these tariffs went into place at current form overall, technology earnings would come down 15% at least, the supply chain will be a Rubik's Cube rivaling COVID days, and the economy would go into a recession/stagflation," Wedbush Securities said.

* West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures plunged 6.5% to $62.61 a barrel late Friday, the lowest since August 2021. "We estimate this [detrimental effect of tariffs on global GDP growth] would imply 250-500k b/d negative impact on oil demand growth," UBS said.

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