US stocks fall, Dow drops more than 400 points as markets grow weary of trade policy

US stocks resumed their slide on Thursday, March 6, after recent concessions from the White House on President Donald Trump’s controversial tariff policies failed to calm jittery investors.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 428 points, or 1%, after falling more than 600 points at session lows. The S&P 500 lost about 1.8%, while the Nasdaq Composite dropped 2.6%.

The major US indexes have each lost more than 2% since the start of this week as US tariffs on imports from Canada, Mexico and China took effect. Canada and China responded with retaliatory tariffs, while Mexico said it would unveil measures over the weekend, according to CNBC.

In the latest update to those developments, US President Donald Trump announced that Mexican imports that fall under the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement will be exempt from tariffs until April 2. Stocks pared losses on Thursday as traders followed the latest developments.

Despite the decline in indices this week, the market got a boost on Wednesday after the White House announced that it would delay imposing tariffs on imports from automakers whose vehicles comply with the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement for one month.

“You’re just having confusion,” said Keith Lerner, chief market strategist at Truist. “That confusion is permeating the daily volatility of the market.”

Shares of chipmaker Marvell Technology fell more than 18% after the company issued mixed guidance for the first quarter. Other semiconductor makers such as ON Semiconductor, Taiwan Semiconductor and Nvidia also fell. Moreover, a series of recent economic reports have sounded the alarm that Trump’s policies could be holding back the U.S. economy. The reports came ahead of Friday’s closely watched jobs report.

The Federal Reserve’s Beige Book and the Institute for Supply Management’s manufacturing reading both pointed to concerns about rising input costs due to tariffs. Data from Challenger, Gray & Christmas on Thursday showed layoffs hitting their highest level in 2020, which the re-employment firm found was driven by efforts by Trump and Government Efficiency Chief Elon Musk to shrink the federal workforce.

Shares of Tesla Inc. fell about 6% in trading Thursday, to about $263.64 a share, the lowest since Nov. 5, when the stock closed at $251.44.

For the week, Tesla shares are down 10%, putting them on track for a seventh straight week of losses. That would be their longest weekly losing streak ever, according to CNBC.

Since Trump took office on Jan. 20, Tesla has lost about $500 billion in market value, or about 37% of its value. Netflix shares fell more than 7% in trading on Thursday, their biggest drop in 10 months.