Dow skids 400 points, testing day's lows as Trump says U.S. will institute steel, aluminum tariffs indefinitely
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell to session lows Thursday afternoon as the stock market digested a second round of testimony from newly minted Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell and the threat of tariffs on steel and aluminum imports. The Dow was off 400 points, or 1.6%, at 24,625, with sharp declines in shares of United Technologies Corp. and Boeing Co. contributing the sharpest downward pressure on the blue-chip benchmark. The S&P 500 index was down 1.4% at 2,677, slipping beneath a psychologically significant level at 2,678. Meanwhile, the Nasdaq Composite Index declined 1.4% at 7,172. Stocks have been volatile but took a leg lower amid reports that President Donald Trump would impose tariffs on steel and aluminum imports. "We're going to build our steel industry back and we're going to build or aluminum industry back," Trump said during a news conference on Thursday. "We're going to be instituting tariffs next week," the president said. Trump's comments, from a White House gathering with leaders in the steel and aluminum business, raise the specter of protectionist trade policies that could unsettle investors--at least in the short term. Meanwhile, earlier Thursday, Powell attempted to moderate comments he made on Tuesday in congressional testimony by emphasizing that the economy wasn't overheating.
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