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Dow tumbles as many as 700 points amid mounting trade war fears

A disappointing jobs report didn't help stocks either.

  • Stocks got smoked Friday as fears of a trade war spiked.
  • The Dow fell as much as 700 points before finishing the day down 2.2%
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US stocks tumbled Friday, with the Dow Jones industrial average falling more than 700 points, or about 3% at its lowest point, as fears of a global trade war continued to mount. Here's how all three major indices finished the day:

  • Dow Jones
  • S&P 500
  • Nasdaq

President Donald Trump said Thursday that "in light of China's unfair retaliation" to proposed US tariffs on $50 billion worth of imports from the country, he had instructed the office of the US Trade Representative to "consider whether $100 billion of additional tariffs would be appropriate."

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Responding on Friday, China's Ministry of Commerce said it would immediately retaliate if the US imposed the sanctions. It said it would not rule out any options.

To make things worse, the US economy added fewer jobs than expected in March, according to a government report released Friday morning. The economy saw the addition 103,000 nonfarm jobs as the unemployment rate held at 4.1%, its lowest since 2000.

Industrial stocks were some of the hardest hit among the Dow's 30 components, with Caterpillar, Boeing, and General Electric all down more than 3%. Outside of the Dow, US Steel also took a somewhat counterintuitive nosedive, despite the possible boost from metals tariffs.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq was dragged down by Amazon, which continued to fall after another attack by Trump. Facebook also slumped as the company remained embroiled in the data privacy scandal surrounding the firm Cambridge Analytica.

Outside of equity markets, the US 10-year yield declined five basis points, to 2.78% and West Texas benchmark crude oil fell 2.47% to $61.97 per barrel.

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