Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on April 4, 2025.
Spencer Platt | Getty Images News | Getty Images
The stock market took another pounding Friday after China retaliated with new tariffs on U.S. goods, sparking fears President Donald Trump has ignited a global trade war that will lead to a recession.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average traded more than 1,300 points lower, or 2.4%. This follows a 1,679.39 point decline on Thursday. The S&P 500 slid 4% after the benchmark shed 4.84% on Thursday and is now off more than 15% off its recent high.
The Nasdaq Composite, home to many tech companies that sell to China and manufacture there as well, dropped 3.8%. If it closes there, the measure will be 21% lower than its December record close, a bear market in Wall Street terms.
China’s commerce ministry said Friday the country will impose a 34% levy on all U.S. products. This matches the tariff on Chinese goods coming into the U.S. unveiled by President Donald Trump on Wednesday.
Technology stocks kept bleeding on Friday. Shares of iPhone maker Apple slumped more than 3%, adding to a 10% loss for the week. Artificial intelligence bellwether Nvidia pulled back 6%, while Tesla fell 9%. All three companies have large exposure to China and are among the hardest hit from Beijing’s retaliatory duties.
Nasdaq since December high
Outside of tech, Boeing and Caterpillar — big exporters to China — led the Dow lower.
“The bull market is dead, and it was destroyed by ideologues and self-inflicted wounds,” said Emily Bowersock Hill, CEO and founding partner at Bowersock Capital Partners. “While the market may be close to the bottom in the short-term, we are concerned about the impact of a global trade-war on long-term economic growth.”
China’s efforts to respond to Trump’s tariffs extended beyond reciprocal duties of their own. Beijing added several companies to its so-called “unreliable entities list,” which asserts that the firms have broken market rules or contractual commitments. In addition, China opened an antitrust investigation into DuPont on Friday, sinking shares 12%.
The 10-year Treasury yield fell back below 4% Friday as investors flooded into bonds for safety, pushing prices up and rates lower. JPMorgan late Thursday raised the odds of a recession this year to 60% from 40%.
The escalation comes after the U.S. duties announced by Trump sent stocks to their worst day since 2020.Trump appeared to be steadfast in the face of the markets backlash, posting on Truth Social Friday that his “policies will never change,” while urging investors to invest more in the U.S.
“The fear now as we go into the weekend [is] the trade war escalates, and the US doesn’t back down,” said Jay Woods, chief global strategist at Freedom Capital Markets. “If we are to punch back, you could have damaging effects to not only the tech sector, but the economy overall. This could throw us into a recession and could end the bull market as we know it.”
The Nasdaq Composite has led the way lower for stocks this week, falling 7.8% as the tariff plan drove investors to reduce their risk exposure. The S&P 500 and Dow Industrials have slipped 6.4% and 5.3%, respectively, week to date. Both the Nasdaq and S&P 500 are tracking for their worst weekly performances since 2020 and sixth negative week of the last seven.
The closely watched jobs report for March gave investors a mixed picture of the U.S. economy. Nonfarm payrolls expanded by 228,000 last month, while economists polled by Dow Jones forecast an increase of 140,000. The unemployment rate inched up to 4.2%, however. Trump touted the report on Friday in a Truth Social post as an example that his tariff policy is already yielding his desired results.
