Stocks appeared to be on pace to finish the week lower.
Stocks were trending downward on Friday, and the markets were on pace to finish the week lower.
As of 3:30 p.m. ET, all four of the major U.S. indexes were down, with Nasdaq off about 155 points, or 0.8%, followed by the S&P 500, which dropped about 23 points, or 0.4%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was off about 165 points, or 0.4%, while the Russell 2000 index was only down 4 points.
For the week, all four indexes were likely to finish in the red, with down S&P 500 falling 2.3%, the Dow and Nasdaq each dropping 2.1%, and the Russell 2000 sinking 3.2%.
On Friday, stocks were sinking after President Donald Trump posted about raising the tariffs on the European Union to 50%, starting June 1.
On Truth Social, Trump posted that the European Union “has been very difficult to deal with, adding that “our discussions with them are going nowhere! Therefore, I am recommending a straight 50% Tariff on the European Union, starting on June 1, 2025.”
Will the 50% EU tariffs go into effect June 1?
It is not clear whether this recommendation will actually become reality on June 1. But Trump did reiterate his stance later on Friday.
“I’m not looking for a deal,” Trump said at the White House. “We’ve set the deal — it’s at 50%,” reported CNN. “If somebody comes in and wants to build a plant here, I can talk to them about a little bit of a delay.”
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent also discussed the matter on Fox News on Friday.
“EU proposals have not been of the same quality that we’ve seen from our other important trading partners,” Bessent said on Fox News. “I’m not going to negotiate on TV, but I would hope that this would light a fire under the EU.”
Laurent Saint-Martin, the French deputy minister of foreign trade, responded to Trump’s Truth Social post with his own on X.
“The new threats of tariff increases from D. Trump do not help at all during the negotiation period between the European Union and the United States. We maintain the same stance: de-escalation but are ready to respond,” Saint-Martin wrote on X.com.
Also, on Friday, Trump threatened to place 25% tariffs on Apple for plans to build an iPhone manufacturing plant in India.
Investors seemed to take the threats in stride, especially the EU tariffs, as the overall markets were only down slightly as of 3:30 p.m. Friday. Apple was down a bit more, as the stock fell about 3%. Europe’s STOXX 600 index was down about 0.9% on Friday.