Stock market sinks: Trump could tariff $200 billion worth Chinese imports to US, report says

President
Donald Trump dons a red “Make America Great Again”
hat
Jae C. Hong/AP
Images

Stocks fell sharply Thursday
after Bloomberg reported
the Trump administration could follow through with
tariffs on roughly $200 billion worth of Chinese imports as soon
as the public comment period ends next week. A rally in
technology stocks had helped bring stocks to record highs in the
four previous sessions. 

Here’s the scoreboard:

Dow Jones industrial
average: 25,951.92 −172.65 (-0.66%)

S&P
500: 2,902.05 −11.99 (-0.41%)

Nasdaq
Composite: 8,076.91 −32.77
(-0.40%)

Another round of US tariffs would bring the running total of
targeted Chinese products to $250 billion and is poised to affect
consumers more than the levies already enacted. 

Beijing, which was swift to counter Trump’s tariffs with
its own tariffs on US products, would almost certainly retaliate.
While China doesn’t import enough from the US to match the duties
dollar-for-dollar, it could increase tariff rates or use
qualitative measures like creating administrative headaches for
American companies. 

Shares of large-cap industrial stocks like
Caterpillar (-2%) and Boeing
(-1.2%) were among the losers following the report. Offshore,
the
 Chinese yuan sank 0.7% against the dollar,
and Treasury yields edged lower.