Stocks fell Thursday morning after President Donald Trump imposed 25% tariffs on imported autos Wednesday evening and European equities declined. The S&P 500 declined 0.6%, the Nasdaq Composite slid 0.8% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 257 points, or 0.6%.
General Motors (GM) stock plunged more than 8%, Stellantis (STLA) fell 3.6%, and Ford (F) declined 3%. The U.S.-listed shares of foreign automakers slid, with Ferrari (RACE) down 2.4%, and Toyota (TM) and Honda (HMC) both off 3.4%. Tesla (TSLA), which may take a smaller hitfrom the tariffs, climbed about 2.2%. JPMorgan (JPM) downgraded its price targets for GM, Ford and Ferrari.
Investors have been watching economic indicators for further signs that U.S. growth may be softening, as shown by manufacturing PMI and consumer confidence numbers earlier this week.
On Thursday, initial jobless claims fell to 224,000 for the seven days through March 22 from an upwardly revised 225,000 in the prior week. The consensus analyst forecast had been for 225,000. Continuing claims eased down to 1.86 million in the week ended March 15 from a downwardly revised 1.88 million.
February pending home sales numbers are due at 10 a.m.
Some stocks that may be active:
Concentrix (CNXC) stock jumped 11% after the outsourcing company’s quarterly earnings per share of $2.79 exceeded expectations by about 8.1%.
Jefferies (JEF) stock fell 7.6% after the investment bank’s quarterly earnings missed expectations, with revenue 14.5% below the StreetAccount consensus forecast and earnings per share 39% lower.
Lululemon (LULU) is scheduled to post fiscal fourth-quarter results post-market after the close on Thursday, with earnings per share expected to rise to $5.85 from $5.28 a year earlier on projected total sales of $3.58 billion, according to the StreetAccount consensus. Same-store sales growth may have been 5.4% year over year. The stock gained 0.6%.
Nvidia (NVDA) stock slid 1.7% after dropping 5.7% yesterday. Beijing has asked firms in China to use energy-efficient chips in new data centers and those that are being expanded, the Financial Times reported on March 25, citing documents it viewed.
Walgreens’ (WBA) stock was little changed premarket pending release of the company’s quarterly earnings, due later Thursday.
