US open: Major indices give back some gains as tariffs continue to weigh

dl wall street times square new york city night pedestrians nasdaq billboards trading nyc generic nypd unsplash — Sharecast / Meric Dagli via Unsplash

Major indices were firmly in the red early on Thursday following the previous session's impressive tariff pause-driven gains.

As of 1500 BST, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 2.27% at 39,688.34, while the S&P 500 lost 2.83% to 5,302.47 and the Nasdaq Composite came out the gate 3.57% weaker at 16,514.33.

The Dow opened 920.11 points lower on Thursday, giving back some of the whopping 2,962.86 points it gained in the previous session as Donald Trump announced a 90-day pause on his so-called "reciprocal" tariffs.

Thursday's early losses come hot on the heels of yesterday's surge, with the Dow Jones delivering its biggest percentage increase since March 2020 and the S&P 500 turning in its third-largest single-day gain since World War II.

When asked why he chose to pause the tariffs, Trump said he thought people were "jumping a little bit out of line" and had gotten" a little bit yippy, a little bit afraid".

While the president did choose to halt his tariffs until July, Trump also moved to up the tariff rate on Chinese-made goods from 104% to 125%, effective immediately, but stated Beijing and Washington were close to making a "very good deal".

On the macro front, the cost of living in the US came in under economists' forecasts in March, with inflation dragged down by a slump in energy quotes. According to the Department of Labor, in seasonally adjusted terms, the Consumer Price Index dipped by 0.1% month-on-month, missing consensus estimates for a drop of 0.2% and serving to push the year-on-year rate of advance in headline CPI down to 2.4%. Consensus had been that inflation would slow from 2.8% to 2.6%.

Energy prices dropped by 2.4% over the month, helping to offset a 0.4% rise in food prices by a big margin. Core CPI, which excludes food and energy prices, on account of their volatility, also undershot forecasts, with underlying Core CPI prices edging up 0.1% month-on-month and 2.8% year-on-year, missing estimates of a 0.3% and 3.0% increase, respectively.

Elsewhere, Americans lined up for unemployment benefits at an accelerated pace in the week ended 5 April, according to the Labor Department. Initial jobless claims rose by 4,000 to 223,000 last week, in line with market expectations, while continuing claims fell by 43,000 from the previous week's downwardly revised level to 1.85m, well below expectations of 1.88m. The four-week moving average, which aims to smooth out week-to-week volatility, was unchanged from the previous week's unrevised 223,000 print.

Still to come, the Federal Government's monthly budget statement will follow at 1900 BST.

In the corporate space, companies with significant exposure to China, such as Tesla and Apple, were both lower in early trading.

Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com

Dow Jones - Risers

Intel Corp. (INTC)$20.4412.29%
Apple Inc. (AAPL)$194.3611.36%
Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO)$57.768.39%
Microsoft Corp. (MSFT)$383.687.59%
Amgen Inc. (AMGN)$283.033.53%
Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (WBA)$10.671.72%
Walmart Inc. (WMT)$91.081.65%
Unitedhealth Group Inc. (UNH)$586.701.42%
Procter & Gamble Co. (PG)$164.511.35%
Coca-Cola Co. (KO)$70.671.02%