NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks drifted to a mixed finish on Thursday as President Donald Trump’s tariffs taking effect on dozens of countries had only a muted effect on markets worldwide.
The S&P 500 slipped 0.1% after briefly climbing to the cusp of its all-time high during the morning. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 224 points, or 0.5%, and the Nasdaq composite rose 0.3% to a record.
Worries are high that Trump’s tariffs are damaging the economy, particularly after last week’s worse-than-expected report on the job market. But hopes for coming cuts to interest rates by the Federal Reserve and a torrent of stronger-than-expected profit reports from big U.S. companies are helping to offset the concerns, at least for now.
Lower interest rates can give the economy and investment prices a boost, though the downside is that they can also push inflation higher. The Bank of England cut its main interest rate on Thursday in hopes of bolstering the sluggish U.K. economy.
The U.S. tariffs that took effect Thursday morning were already well known, as well as lower than what Trump had initially threatened. Some countries are still trying to negotiate down the tax rates on their exports, and continued uncertainty seems to be the only certainty on Wall Street. All the while, the U.S. stock market faces criticism that it’s climbed too far, too fast since hitting a bottom in April, with prices looking too expensive.
On Wall Street, worries about tariffs helped drag down the stock of Crocs.
The footwear maker tumbled 29.2% even though it reported a stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. It said it expects revenue to drop as much as 11% in the current quarter from a year earlier, while tariffs are dragging on its profitability. The company cited “continued uncertainty from evolving global trade policy and related pressures around the consumer.”
Eli Lilly dropped 14.1% even though the drugmaker likewise reported a stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. Analysts said some investors were disappointed with results that Lilly provided for a late-stage study of its potential pill version of the popular weight-loss drug Zepbound.
Intel sank 3.1% after Trump called for its CEO to resign, while accusing him of being “highly CONFLICTED,” though he gave no evidence.
Apple helped keep the market’s losses in check, as it rose on hopes that…