NEW YORK — Wall Street is pointing sharply lower Monday following President Donald Trump’s orders to impose steep tariffs on the biggest U.S. trading partners: Mexico, Canada and China.
Futures for the S&P 500 tumbled 1.5%, while futures for the technology-heavy Nasdaq fell 1.6%. Dow Jones Industrial futures were off 1.2%.
Trump’s 25% tariffs on most imports from Canada and Mexico and 10% tariffs on goods from China are to take effect Tuesday. Trump has said the tariffs were imposed on those countries for the production and importation of the opiate fentanyl, along with trade surpluses and illegal border crossings by migrants from across the globe.
Canada initially ordered retaliatory tariffs of 25% on American imports starting Tuesday, including beverages, cosmetics and paper products worth 30 billion Canadian dollars ($20 billion). A second list of goods was to be released soon, including passenger vehicles, trucks, steel and aluminum products, certain fruits and vegetables, beef, pork, dairy products, aerospace products and more. Those goods were estimated to be worth 125 billion Canadian dollars ($85 billion).
Shares of companies spanning many of those industries sank in premarket trading Monday.
Automakers are being hit especially hard early Monday.
Volkswagen sources 43% of its vehicles through Mexico, General Motors 22%, and Ford 15%.
General Motors fell 6.3%, while Ford lost 3.9% and Tesla tumbled 3.6% in premarket trading. Volkswagen slumped 6% in European trading.
Constellation Brands, the maker of Corona beer and Robert Mondavi wine, skidded 6.7% after some Canadian officials said they planned to remove American alcohol brands from government store shelves.
Manufacturers also were dinged early Monday. Farm equipment maker Deere & Co. tumbled 4.5%, while Caterpillar dipped around 2%.
Mexico has so far said only that it will impose retaliatory tariffs, without mentioning any rate or products.
Trump’s promise of tariffs in the lead-up to the election was part of the reason the Federal Reserve dialed back the number of interest rate cuts it expected to impose this year. Originally, the central bank had projected four cuts, but slashed that number to two at their December meeting, citing still-sticky inflation that could worsen under Trump’s trade and immigration policies.
After implementing three straight rate cuts to close the year, the Fed last week left its benchmark interest rate unchanged, taking a more cautious view on how policies under Trump might impact inflation and the broader economy.
Analysts say the tariffs would measurably add to U.S. inflation, which the Fed has not quite managed to get down to its goal of 2%.
Asian markets also were bracing for volatility set off by a possible trade war escalation.
Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 lost 2.7% to finish at 38,520.09. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 declined 1.8% to 8,379.40. South Korea’s Kospi dropped 2.5% to 2,453.95. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng dipped less than 0.1% to 20,217.26, while trading was closed in Shanghai for a holiday.
“The implications for trade restrictions could result in reduced global trade flows, supply chain shifts which could mean higher costs for businesses, and higher inflation,” said Yeap Jun Rong, market strategist at IG.
The share price of SoftBank Group Corp. rose 0.5% after it announced at an event with OpenAI in Tokyo that they were setting up SB OpenAI Japan, in which each would own a 50% share, to offer artificial intelligence services to companies.
Investors have been jolted by a report from a Chinese upstart, DeepSeek about developing a cheaper large language model that can complete globally. The disruption raised questions about whether all the investment expected for AI chips is really needed, sending some technology shares tumbling.
Shares of technology companies listed in Hong Kong seemed to hold up despite the threat of Trump’s tariffs, partly because DeepSeek highlights the strength of the nation’s technology sector.
European markets were also down significantly Monday after Trump threatened to impose steeper tariffs elsewhere, saying import taxes will “definitely happen” with the European Union and possibly with the United Kingdom as well.
By midday, France’s CAC 40 had slipped 1.9%, while Germany’s DAX dropped 2% and Britain’s FTSE 100 fell 1.3%.
In energy trading, benchmark U.S. crude jumped $1.66 to $74.19 a barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, gained $1.11 to $76.78 a barrel.
In currency trading, the U.S. dollar fell to 154.58 Japanese yen from 155.18 yen. The euro cost $1.0279, down from $1.0363.
Bitcoin extended its weekend decline, falling under $95,000 Monday. The original cryptocurrency had been hovering around $105,000 for the better part of the past two weeks.