The major averages pulled back to start the month of September on tariff worries and higher interest rates. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 249 points, or 0.55%. The S&P 500 fell 44 points or 0.69% while the Nasdaq Composite fell 175 points or 0.82%. This is the first back-to-back 1% declines for the tech-heavy index since President Donald Trump announced his tariffs on “liberation day” in early April.
Interest rates backed up after a federal appeals court on Friday ruled that most of Trump’s global tariffs are illegal. This raises the prospect of the government having to repay the money already brought in, stretching an already-stressed U.S. fiscal situation. The 10-year Treasury yield rose 5 basis points to 4.28%. The 30-year bond yield
climbed more than 5 basis points to 4.97%. The 2-year Treasury yield rose 3 basis points to 3.65%.
Tech led the weakness today with chips lower on concerns of increase competition from China and Alibaba and also supply constraint.
On corporate news front, Pepsi was a bright spot up 2% on an activist investor looking to shake things up. Kraft Heinz was lower on news the company wants to break up after merging 10 years.
Commodities had a good day with gold up 2% to a new high. Oil was up over 2% as well while bitcoin rose nearly 2%.
Wall Street is coming off a strong month for August with the S&P 500 rising nearly 2%, climbing above 6,500 for the first time. September is historically the worst month for equities, with the S&P 500 averaging a 4.2% drop over the last five years, and falling more than 2% on average over the last 10 years.
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