U.S. stocks fell in after hours trading as President Donald Trump unveiled sweeping tariffs of at least 10% and even higher for some countries, raising the risks of a global trade war that hits the U.S. economy.
The SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY), which tracks the S&P 500, lost about 2%. The Invesco QQQ ETF, which corresponds to the Nasdaq-100 Index, shed 3.3%. The SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF Trust (DIA) lost 1%.
Shares of companies that are big importers were hit Wednesday evening. Nike lost 6%. General Motors tumbled 3%. Shares of hard hit stocks over the past month as tariff fears swirled continued falling. Nvidia and Tesla were each off about 3%.
The White House unveiled a baseline tariff rate of 10% on all countries that goes into effect April 5. Even bigger duties will be charged against countries in coming days that levy higher rates on the U.S.
“We will charge them approximately half of what they are and have been charging us,” said Trump in a press conference from the White House Rose Garden. “So, the tariffs will be not a full reciprocal.”
That halved figure includes “the combined rate of all their tariffs, non-monetary barriers and other forms of cheating,” he said.
What’s likely spooking traders is that these rates will end up being much higher than expected for many nations. For example, the effective tariff rate for China will now be 54%. Traders had hoped a 10% rate would be a universally applied cap, not a starting baseline rate.
“What was delivered was as haphazard as anything this administration has done to date, and the level of complication on top of the ultimate level of new tariffs is worse than had been feared and not yet priced into the market,” said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at B. Riley Wealth Management.
Wednesday saw further volatility roil markets as tensions ran high ahead of Trump’s announcement, but stocks ultimately ended the session in the green on hopes maybe the tariff would be less stringent than feared. The S&P 500 closed 0.7% higher. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 235 points, or 0.6%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite added 0.9%.
“If he would have come in with just the 10%, I think the markets would probably be up quite a bit right now,” said Larry Tentarelli, chief technical strategist at the Blue Chip Trend Report. “But because the tariffs came in bigger than many expected, I think what that does is it creates more downside volatility right now.”
The broad-based S&P 500 was down for five out of the past six weeks because of the heightened uncertainty caused by Trump’s varied tariff announcements, which have been rolling out since February. Ongoing tensions with key U.S. global trading partners has started to show up in some sluggish economic data, which further pressured stocks by heightening recession fears.
The S&P 500 crossed briefly again into correction territory on Monday, meaning a 10% slide from its last high, and saw its worst monthly percentage drop since December 2022 in March. The index first slipped into a correction in mid-March.
In February, Trump had announced tariffs of 25% on Canada and Mexico and an additional 10% on China, quickly prompting retaliatory tariffs. He also announced a 25% import tariff on steel and aluminum in February and announced a plan in March to impose 25% tariffs on automobiles and parts now set to take effect on Thursday.
Trump said on Wednesday previously announced tariffs on Canada and Mexico will remain and a reciprocal rate will not be added to those.
The last three days stocks had rebounded on hopes Trump would not announce a severe tariff plan on the risk it would tip the economy into a slowdown and raise inflation.
“More severe tariff rates are currently rocking share prices, but Trump is still negotiating,” said Jeff Kilburg of KKM Financial.
RH, G-III, Penske Automotive plunge 23% or more in afterhours trading
RH, G-III Apparel Group and Penske Automotive Group tumbled between 23% and 25% in afterhours trading following President Trump’s imposition of larger-than-expected tariffs on imports of foreign-made goods into the United States.
During the President’s Rose Garden announcement, RH, formerly Restoration Hardware, released fiscal fourth-quarter earnings and revenue that fell short of Wall Street analyst estimates, as well as weaker-than-estimated fiscal first quarter and full year revenue growth guidance.
Other companies that import a large number of products from overseas as part of their business model also slumped in late trading: Five Below and Gap Inc. tumbled 11% each, Deckers Outdoor dropped 10%, Lululemon Athletica, Urban Outfitters, Skechers, Shoe Carnival and Crocs slid 9% while Williams-Sonoma and VF Corp. fell 8%.
— Scott Schnipper
Trump says dozens of countries could face levies much higher than 10%
President Donald Trump held up a sign showing the rates countries will pay. Although there is a base tariff rate of 10%, the chart showed countries with larger trade imbalances could pay much more. For example, China will face a 34% rate, the European Union will be charged 20% and Vietnam will pay 46% under the reciprocal plan. A sample of the rates is in the chart above.
But some countries will face even higher rates when taking into account duties already implemented. For example, the effective rate on China goods will be more than 50%.
— Christina Cheddar Berk
Nasdaq 100 laggards include Monster Beverage and Apple
Only six stocks in the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 index were in the green in extended trading after Trump’s tariff announcements — Intuit, Paccar, Workday, CoStar, PepsiCo and MercadoLibre.
Leading the losses were Monster Beverage, Apple, Applovin and Palantir, which all fell at least 5% in afterhours trading.
— Yun Li, Gina Francolla
Apple tumbles nearly 5% in Wednesday’s extended trading hours
Shares of iPhone maker Apple slipped nearly 5% in Wednesday’s after-hours trading.
The moves came after President Donald Trump announced a blanket tariff of at least 10% for all foreign goods. Select other nations, such as China, Vietnam and India, were hit with a higher levy.
Apple is a company especially sensitive to these tariffs, since the company sells many of its products in international markets. Apple stock has been hit in recent quarters as the company has continued to experience market share losses in countries like China to domestic competitors.
— Lisa Kailai Han
Nike drops 6% as multination stocks sell off following tariff announcement
Multinational consumer stocks were sliding in after-hours trading following Trump’s tariff announcement.
These companies all have significant sales outside of the U.S.
— Jesse Pound
Major U.S. indexes decline after Trump imposes tariffs
Shortly after 4:45 p.m. ET, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY), which tracks the S&P 500, traded about 2.2% lower. The Invesco QQQ ETF, which corresponds to the Nasdaq-100 Index, lost roughly 3.2%. The SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF Trust (DIA) shed nearly 1%.
— Pia Singh