US Market: Investors scared by tariffs and weak economic signals, market saw a sharp decline

News Topical, Digital Desk : The US markets are witnessing a decline on Friday. The imposition of new tariffs by the US on dozens of trading partner countries, weak quarterly results of Amazon, and weak employment figures have spoiled the sentiments among investors. Due to this, the market has seen a decline today. The Nasdaq has fallen by about 2 percent, while the Dow Jones has registered a decline of more than 500 points. The S&P 500 has fallen by more than one percent. The decline was more at the beginning of the session and the Dow Jones at one time had come down to the level of 43341 against the previous closing level of 44131, that is, the index saw a decline of up to 790 points.

Why did the decline happen?

Hours before the tariff deadline, President Donald Trump signed an executive order imposing tariffs on US imports from several countries, including Canada, Brazil, India and Taiwan. With this announcement, the S&P 500 and NASDAQ fell to their lowest level in more than two months, while the Dow Jones also slipped to their lowest level in more than a month. Not only this, there have been some other reasons for the pressure on the market. The data released for July showed that employment growth in the US was much weaker than expected, and there has been a big cut in the previous month's data as well. This indicates that pressure is increasing in the US labor market. A Reuters report quoted an expert as saying that this report was quite disappointing... After today's report, the market has become more worried about the state of the labor market. At the same time, the CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) — also known as Wall Street's 'fear index' — reached its highest level in nearly six weeks and saw a rise of 20.66 points. 

Where did the decline come from? 8 out of 11 sector indices of S&P 500 registered a decline, with the biggest decline being in the consumer discretionary sector, which fell by 3.4%. The main reason for this was a 6.7% decline in Amazon shares, while AI-focused companies Alphabet and Microsoft performed strongly. The technology sector registered a decline of 1.9% and the communication service sector a decline of 1.5%. Apple has seen a slight decline. Nvidia declined by 3.1%, Tesla declined by 2.6%, Meta Platforms declined by 2.5% and Alphabet declined by 1.4%. 

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