Stocks dipped on Wednesday due to pressure from tech shares, as traders continue to navigate uncertainty regarding tariffs.
The broad market index shed 0.3%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average traded 181 points higher, or 0.3%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite dropped 1%.
Shares of Nvidia tumbled more than 4%, while Tesla lost about 3.5%. Alphabet, Amazon, and Meta each declined by more than 1%.
Investors are closely watching for signs of rising inflation and a potential economic slowdown, particularly as President Donald Trump’s April 2 start date for reciprocal tariffs approaches. Trump stated in an interview with Newsmax on Tuesday that tariffs will likely be “more lenient than reciprocal.” This softened stance follows reports from earlier this week indicating that tariffs could be more narrowly focused and that sector-specific duties may be delayed.
Stocks closed slightly higher on Tuesday after sentiment appeared to improve based on these tariff reports. This uptick in the market overshadowed the release of March consumer confidence data, which showed that U.S. consumers’ outlook on income, business, and job prospects had dropped to its lowest level in 12 years. However, this decline in consumer confidence does not necessarily signal an impending recession, according to a market expert who told Business Headline.
“The soft data looks terrible. If you look at the soft data, you’d say we’re in a recession right now — especially after today’s consumer confidence report — but it’s a matter of actions speaking louder than words. When you look at the hard data, we’re not seeing nearly the collapse that we’re seeing in the soft data,” the expert said.
They further explained, “Over the last week, you’ve seen housing starts, building permits, industrial production, capacity utilization, and new home sales all either in line with or better than expected. So that suggests that, at this point, we haven’t seen that transfer from not feeling good to actually not being good.”
