Wall Street Tumbles as Inflation and Tariff Jitters Rattle Tech Giants and Markets

Stock traded sharply lower on wall street, withe the sell off of the technological moderates like Amazon and Microsoft, after the US economic indicators fueled rest with its economic growth and high inflation alongside the increase in tariffs from the Trump administration.

U.S. spending in the month of February was lower than expected while the inflationary measureof price increased more than expected during the prevous 13 months.

A Michigan University reported inflation expectations soared for the period of March making it the highest in 2 and a half years along with the expectation of inflation being above the average for more than a year and half.

These economists suggested that the growing tariffs proposed by the US president towards the end of January could lead to a increase in the price of goods and services, further increasing inflation alongside delaying the Federal Reserve’s plan for interest rate cuts.

The inflation alongside proposed tariff put a sharp drop to the previously higher value of stocks on dollar street, dropping Apple’s value down by 2.7%, Microsoft’s value down by 3% and a 4.3% drop in Amazon’s value.

Other notable red flags investors need to be cautious about, according to Greg Bassuk, CEO of AXS Investments in New York, is that the inflation cost pertaining to tariffs hasn’t shown in the data as of yet. This is precisely why the lack of sudden changes suggests that a while tumultuous period in terms of inflation is soon approaching.

The S&P 500 dropped 1.97% bringing the index to 5,580.94 points.

The Nasdaq Composite Index fell 2.70% dropping down to 17,322.99 points and the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell by 1.69% resting at 41,583.90 points.

As tracked by CME FedWatch, traders tend to believe there is a 76% chance the Federal Reserve will ease interest rates by 25 basis points at their scheduled meeting in June.

With Friday’s losses, the S&P 500 is down about 9% from its record high close on 19th February while the Nasdaq is down around 14% from its record high close on December 16th.

“The issue is businesses have difficulty with those parameters as they do not have a clear understanding of the regulations,” noted Bob Doll, chief executive officer of Crossmark Investments.

“A portion of the economic frailty we are facing and will perhaps face further down the line is the outcome of people and industries stating, ‘I am not sure of what the future holds, so I will exercise some restraint.’” An index following the performance of sensitive interest rate banks went down by 2.3%. The volatility index also increased by 3 points surpassing the 1-week limit. Stocks for CoreWeave opened at nearly 3% less than the expected offering price. The newly trademarked Nvidia-backed artificial intelligence infrastructure company went public on Friday, however this was not a good start. Such a weak debut might severely damage the optimism that there might be a reasonable recovery in initial public offering of the stocks especially in the context of equity markets which are suffering due to tariff-related chaos. For Trump's stubborn aides who have decided on maintaining a 25% tariff on vehicle imports starting next week, this causes severe damages to the already crippled automobile industry stocks. placing the burden on GM and Ford who suffered 1.1% and 1.8% loss per share respectively. The performance of these stocks in unison caused a dip in automobile stocks for the second consecutive day. Regarding the previous week, The Dow Jones went down by a rounded figure of 1, the S&P 500 and The Nasdaq lost ground on this with 2.6% and 1.5% respectively bringing the total loss to 5.1% dominated by the S&P 500 core strength. Attention now turns to a fresh round of tariffs the Trump administration is set to unveil on April 9, which Trump recently gave a hint and these steps might move away from the succint retaliation amends that were previously pledged.

The sportswear manufacturer lowered its annual forecasts due to unpredictability with tariffs which caused shares of Lululemon Athletica to plunge by 14%.

Concerns regarding the trade war boosted gold prices causing an increase of 9.5 % and 4.5% for Harmony Gold and Gold Fields, respectively.

The tech centric Nasdaq is set to experience its deepest quarterly drop since 2022 while the S&P 500 is projected to face its first decline in 6 quarters.

UBS Global Wealth Management shifted their target for the year end S&P 500 dropping it down to 6,400 from 6,600.

The chipmaker struggled to improve its financial position causing shares of Wolfspeed to slump by 52 percent after appointing a new CEO.

Within the S&P 500 declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by a ratio of 4.5:1.

The S&P 500 recorded 23 new lows and 10 new highs while the Nasdaq had 358 new lows and 35 new highs.

Compared to the average over the last 20 sessions, the volume on the US exchange was still light with 14.3 billion shares indicated traded.

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