[New York Stock Market Briefing] All three major indices fall... Fatigue from US tariff pressure

The three major stock indices on the New York Stock Exchange recorded a decline. Concerns about inflation and economic slowdown weighed on stock prices as U.S. President Donald Trump announced a 25% tariff on all imported cars and car parts.

On the 27th (local time) at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 42,299.70, down 155.09 points (0.37%) from the previous day. The Standard & Poor's (S&P) 500 index fell 18.89 points (0.33%) to 5,693.31, and the Nasdaq Composite Index closed at 17,804.03, down 94.98 points (0.53%).

The market was generally fluctuating within a narrow range, unable to find direction. Investors felt fatigue from Trump's tariff imposition moves. Trump had previously announced the day before that he would impose a 25% tariff on all imported cars and car parts, freezing investor sentiment.

Even after the car tariff announcement, Trump's tariff pressure continued. Trump posted on his social media Truth Social around 2 a.m. that "if the European Union (EU) and Canada cooperate to harm the U.S. economically, much larger tariffs will be imposed," and "to protect the U.S., the best friend of both countries, much larger-scale tariffs than currently planned will be imposed on the two countries."

This was a threat that if Canada and the EU expanded bilateral trade to avoid Trump's tariff pressure, larger tariffs would be imposed.

Regarding the reciprocal tariffs imposed on April 2, Trump said he would be "very generous," while also expressing a willingness to lower tariffs on China to proceed with the sale of the social media app TikTok in the U.S.

Samir Samana, senior global market strategist at Wells Fargo Investment Institute, pointed out, "The almost disorderly implementation of trade policy is making investors uneasy," and "the approach taken by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) itself is causing concern, and there is a possibility that something important may be overlooked."

The 'Magnificent 7,' referring to the group of giant tech companies, was mixed. Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, and Tesla were strong, but Nvidia fell 2.05%, and Meta and Alphabet also fell by more than 1%.

Nvidia showed weakness in its stock price as it faced pressure from U.S. government regulations on advanced semiconductor exports to China and China's environmental and energy regulations.

Tesla surged more than 7% during the day on expectations of benefiting from the 25% car tariff but gave up most of the gains in the afternoon.

On the other hand, traditional American car manufacturers saw a decline in investor sentiment due to car tariff pressure.

In particular, General Motors (GM) fell by more than 7% due to analysis that a significant portion of its vehicles sold in the U.S. are assembled and imported from Canada and Mexico. Ford fell by nearly 4%.

Video game distribution chain GameStop, which declared a transformation into a Bitcoin investment company, saw its stock price plummet by 22% on the day. Concerns about stock dilution spread as it announced plans to issue $1.3 billion in convertible bonds (CB) for Bitcoin purchases.

TSMC, AMD, and Broadcom fell by around 4%.

Reporter Min-Kyung Shin, Hankyung.com radio@hankyung.com