Dow drops 500 points as selling returns to Wall Street on Trump tariff confusion: Live updates

Stocks resumed pulling back on Thursday as investors sought out more clarity on the latest U.S. tariff measures and their impacts on the economy.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average traded 465 points lower, or 1.1%. The S&P 500 shed 1.4%, while the Nasdaq Composite pulled back 1.5%.

The major averages have each lost at least 3% this week as U.S. tariffs on Canadian, Mexican and Chinese imports took effect this week. Canada and China responded with retaliatory levies of its own, while Mexico said it would unveil measures over the weekend. Those responses have escalated fears of a trade war, further rocking financial markets.

Those losses come despite the benchmarks getting a boost Wednesday when the White House said it would grant a one-month delay for tariffs on automakers whose cars comply with the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement. This development fueled traders’ hopes that Trump could provide further exemptions, but some on Wall Street questioned the effectiveness of these exceptions.

“Exempting auto makers for just one month from draconian tariffs is like putting a Band-Aid on a bullet wound … given the torrent of trade/tariff announcements planned by the White House in the coming months,” Adam Crisafulli of Vital Knowledge wrote.

A continued unwind of the popular artificial intelligence trade that has boosted the market for more than a year also hurt stocks on Thursday.

Notably, chipmaker Marvell Technology dropped more than 18% after the company issued mixed first-quarter guidance. Other semiconductor builders such as ON Semiconductor, Taiwan Semiconductor and Nvidia also slid.

On top of that, a string of recent economic reports raised alarm that Trump’s policies could hinder the U.S. economy. Those came ahead of Friday’s closely watched jobs report.

The Federal Reserve’s Beige Book and the Institute for Supply Management’s manufacturing reading both indicated fear of rising input costs because of the tariffs. Data from Challenger, Gray & Christmas released Thursday showed layoff announcements soared to 2020 highs, which the outplacement firm found was driven by Trump and billionaire Elon Musk’s efforts to shrink the federal government’s workforce.