Why Are Markets Falling Again? Let Me Count The Ways
The market is seeing red again.
On the first trading day of the second quarter, the Dow slipped by more than 400 points, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq ended the day nearly three percent lower.
“We saw overnight China announced a tariff of up to 25 percent on about...130 U.S. products,” explained Matthew Battipaglia, Portfolio Manager at Washington Crossing Advisors.
China’s new tariffs hit a myriad of American goods, including fruits and pork, imports of which amount to around $3 billion.
The announcement comes merely weeks after President Trump slapped taxes on aluminum and steel imports from China and announced plans to tax $50 billion more worth of Chinese goods.
These trade war warning shots from two of the world’s largest economies worried investors Monday. They also added pressure to a market that was already heading downwards on negative news from the tech world.
Reports of Apple potentially ditching Intel and using its own chips for Mac computers drove Intel’s shares down by as much as nine percent. [Tesla, Facebook, and Amazon](https://cheddar.com/videos/facebooks-data-policies-are-like-cigarette-labels) also resumed their downward spirals to start the quarter.
President Donald Trump said he has decided to lower his combined tariff rates on imports of Chinese goods to 47% after talks with Chinese leader Xi Jinping on curbing fentanyl trafficking.
Universal Music Group and AI platform Udio have settled a copyright lawsuit and will collaborate on a new music creation and streaming platform. The companies announced on Wednesday that they reached a compensatory legal settlement and new licensing agreements. These agreements aim to provide more revenue opportunities for Universal's artists and songwriters. The rise of AI song generation tools like Udio has disrupted the music streaming industry, leading to accusations from record labels. This deal marks the first since Universal and others sued Udio and Suno last year. Financial terms of the settlement weren't disclosed.
Nvidia on Wednesday became the first public company to reach a market capitalization of $5 trillion. The ravenous appetite for the Silicon Valley company’s chips is the main reason that the company’s stock price has increased so rapidly since early 2023.
Chris Williamson, Chief Business Economist at S&P Global, breaks down September’s CPI print and inflation trends, explaining what it means for markets.
