U.S. stocks finished in the red again Tuesday after President Donald Trump moved to double tariffs against Canada.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 478.23 points, or 1.14%, to 41,433.48, while the Nasdaq Composite and S&P 500 fell 0.18% and 0.76% to 17,436.10 and 5,572.07, respectively. At its low during the day’s trading session, the S&P was down 10% from its record close.
The president wrote on Truth Social Tuesday that, effective Wednesday, steel and aluminum imports were set to face an additional levy of 25%, bringing the total to 50%. But by Tuesday afternoon, Trump trade advisor Peter Navarro told CNBC that the 50% tariffs wouldn’t be implemented on Wednesday, though the original 25% duty would still take effect as planned. Meanwhile, Ontario Premier Doug Ford said a 25% surcharge on electricity exported to the U.S. would be temporarily suspended after talking with U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.
The latest uncertainty for the market followed the Dow and S&P 500’s worst days since Dec. 18 on Monday, with the former falling nearly 900 points. The Nasdaq, meanwhile, had its worst day since September 2022.
The volatility has left many industries in a wait-and-see mode following weeks of turmoil day after day as the White House has unleashed a barrage of policy changes. One repercussion is that the pace of mergers and acquisitions has dropped off significantly so far in 2025, with money spent in the technology, media and telecom sector down 40% on a year over year basis between the start of January and March 10, according to Dealogic.
In media stocks, Disney finished down nearly 5% at $97.90 per share, with shares down 12.8% in the past year and 11.6% year to date, but up 10.8% in the past six months.
Comcast fell 0.4% to $35.95 per share and is down 3.9% year to date, 17.4% in the past year and 7% in the past six months. Warner Bros. Discovery fell 2.08% to $10.37 per share and is down 2.7% year to date, but is up 14% in the past year and 49.4% in the past six months. Paramount Global fell 4.4% to $11.47 per share on Tuesday and is down 1.29% in the past year, but up 8.4% year to date and 14.9% in the past six months.
In tech stocks, Netflix closed up 3.2% at $895.10 per share, with shares up 48.9% in the past year, 31.3% in the past six months and 0.9% year to date.
Meta, which is up 25% in the past year, 18% in the past six months and 1% year to date, finished Tuesday’s trading session up 1% at $605.71 per share. Amazon, which is up 14% in the past year and 6.5% in the past six months but down 10.7% year to date, ended up more than 1% at $196.59 per share.
Alphabet, which is up 19% in the past year and 8.5% in the past six months but down 13% year to date, finished down 1% at $164.04 per share. Apple, which is up 27.8% in the past year but down 9.4% year to date and 0.8% in the past six months, finished the session down 2.9% at $220.84 per share.
