
Dow slides and S&P 500 closes in correction as Trump’s trade war escalates
US stocks slid Thursday and the S&P 500 closed in correction, down more than 10% from its record high in February, as President Donald Trump threatened new tariffs on the European Union.
The Dow ended the day down by 537 points, or 1.3%. The S&P 500 fell 1.39% and the Nasdaq Composite was 1.96% lower.
The selloff extends a rout in US markets that has been driven by the uncertainty around Trump’s tariff announcements. The Nasdaq entered correction territory last week, and as of Thursday closed down 14.2% from its record high in December.
The S&P 500 closed at 5,521.52, down 10.1% from its record high of 6,144.15 on February 19 and notching its first correction in over a year. Correction is a Wall Street term for falling more than 10% from a recent high.
The last correction to the S&P 500 occurred in October 2023, when the benchmark index closed down 10.3% from its recent high that July, according to Adam Turnquist, chief technical strategist at LPL Financial. That correction took 24 days to recover from, Turnquist said.
Trump on Thursday threatened to impose a 200% tariff on alcoholic beverages from the European Union after the bloc on Wednesday imposed a 50% tariff on US spirits like bourbon. The EU’s tariff on US spirits was in retaliation for Trump’s sweeping 25% tariffs on steel and aluminum.
Cooling inflation data and a slight rebound in tech stocks had helped the S&P 500 and Nasdaq close higher Wednesday, but they slid Thursday as the trade tensions between Washington and Brussels escalated.
Turnquist said drawdowns are “nothing out of the ordinary,” but noted the recent drop in stocks has been “painful” because it’s been just three weeks since the S&P 500 hit a record high on February 19.
“In only a few weeks, the broader market has gone from record highs to correction territory,” Turnquist said in a note Thursday. “Tariff uncertainty has captured most of the blame for the selling pressure and is exacerbating economic growth concerns.”
The White House doubles down on tariffs
Trump indicated Thursday that he is “not going to bend” on the 25% tariffs on steel and aluminum, vowing that any resulting economic disruption “won’t be very long.”
“No, I’m not going to bend at all aluminum or steel or cars. We’re not going to bend. We’ve been ripped off as a country for many, many years,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.
Markets dipped to their lowest level of the day after Trump’s remarks.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Thursday on CNBC that he is not concerned about “a little bit of volatility over three weeks.”