Trump, who has been hyping Wednesday as “Liberation Day,” has pledged to impose sweeping levies against trading partners on the date, but his administration has still not released a detailed plan about who or what will be impacted.
A few minutes into trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 0.5 percent to 41,364.02, while the broad-based S&P 500 Index fell 1.2 percent to 5,513.90.
The tech-focused Nasdaq Composite Index lost 2.1 percent to trade down at 16,942.85.
“Right now investors are really trying to wrestle with what’s coming down the pipe regarding tariffs,” Steve Sosnick from Interactive brokers told AFP.
“And the messaging over the weekend from the president doesn’t provide a lot of clarity,” he added.The CBOE Volatility Index, colloquially known as Wall Street’s “fear gauge,” jumped more than 10 percent, reflecting the market uncertainty. “I think the mood is very nervous out there today,” said Sosnick.
Among individual companies, US aviation giant United Airlines slipped more than 5.9 percent in early trading amid news that Canadians were pulling back on trips to the United States due to the tariffs.
And drug maker Moderna’s share price tumbled close to 11 percent as traders digested news that a top US Food and Drug Administration official had quit over disagreements with Trump’s new health secretary, noted vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
