US stocks tumble on tariff, inflation fears

BSS
Published On: 08 Feb 2025, 14:51

NEW YORK, Feb 7, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - Wall Street stocks slumped to close the week Friday as investors gird for fresh US tariffs and as employment and other data fanned inflation fears.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average slid 1.0 percent to 44,303.40, as did the broad-based S&P 500 Index to 6,025.99.

The Nasdaq Composite Index plummeted 1.4 percent to 19,523.40.

The gloomy showing came after US President Donald Trump said he could announce "reciprocal tariffs" next week, without specifying which countries might be affected.

"We're going to have tariffs, mostly reciprocal tariffs," Trump said at a press conference with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba.

He added that he was "probably meeting on that Monday or Tuesday," saying that this would be "opposed to a flat-fee tariff" approach.

Stocks also slumped on the back of government data showing that US unemployment edged down to a rate of 4.0 percent, while wage growth came in higher than analysts expected in January.

And the University of Michigan's consumer sentiment index indicated that sentiment fell, while year-ahead inflation expectations rose to 4.3 percent.

Among companies, Amazon shares fell by more than four percent as its sales outlook disappointed a day before.

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