By Chuck Mikolajczak
NEW YORK (Reuters) -Global stocks dropped for the first time in three sessions on Wednesday and the U.S. dollar resumed its ascent as investors awaited the next tariff announcement from U.S. President Donald Trump.
Trump was scheduled to hold a press conference at 4 p.m. EDT (2000 GMT) and has recently confirmed the auto tariffs will be on cars.
On Wall Street, U.S. stocks ended sharply lower, as the technology sector dropped 2.46% to weigh heavily. Each of the three major U.S. indexes snapped a three-session streak of gains.
Stocks had shown signs of bottoming in recent days after coming under pressure due to uncertainty over the tariff outlook and its potential to slow the global economy and dent corporate profits. The major U.S. indexes are on track for their first back-to-back monthly declines since the two-month period that ended in October 2023.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 132.71 points, or 0.31%, to 42,454.79, the S&P 500 fell 64.45 points, or 1.12%, to 5,712.20 and the Nasdaq Composite fell 372.84 points, or 2.04%, to 17,899.02.
The U.S. Commerce Department said orders for durable goods increased 0.9% versus the estimate of economists polled by Reuters for a 1% fall, as businesses rushed to place orders for primary metals and fabricated metal products ahead of the anticipated tariffs.
Trump said on Monday automobile tariffs were coming soon, even as he indicated not all of his threatened levies would be imposed on April 2 and some countries may get exemptions. He also slapped 25% secondary tariffs on any country that buys oil or gas from Venezuela.
“The conviction level amongst investors that April 2nd is going to be the clearing event now in terms of dealing with changes to trade-related policy seems to be pretty low in terms of that probability so there’s likely to be a persistency in terms of the ongoing rollout of these types of headlines and policies that seem to have a little bit more staying power,” said Matt Stucky, chief portfolio manager for equities at Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of currencies, rose 0.33% to 104.56, with the euro down 0.37% at $1.0751. After dipping on Tuesday, the greenback is on track for its fifth gain in six sessions.
MSCI’s gauge of stocks across the globe fell 7.84 points, or 0.92%, to 845.65, while the pan-European STOXX 600 index closed down 0.7% as the coming tariffs spurred caution.
European stocks have outperformed their U.S. counterparts this year, largely on hopes a German spending package could spur growth and help counter the levies. The STOXX 600 was poised for its biggest percentage gain since the fourth quarter of 2022.
