US: Stocks edge down from records amid tariff threats

[NEW YORK] Wall Street stocks retreated from records on Friday (Jul 11) as markets digested US President Donald Trump’s latest tariff threats while looking ahead to major earnings reports later this month.

In his latest broadsides on trade, Trump warned of 35 per cent tariffs on Canada and said his administration was on track to announce levies on the European Union in the coming days.

But equity markets have had a “bullish” reaction to these developments, said Adam Sarhan of 50 Park Investments, who contrasted Friday’s equity market losses with stock market carnage earlier in the year at Trump’s initial wave of tariff threats.

The broad-based S&P 500 finished down 0.3 per cent at 6,259.75, declining from Thursday’s record close.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 0.6 per cent to 44,371.51, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index fell 0.2 per cent to 20,585.53 after hitting its own record Thursday.

“We have yet to see new substantial tariffs actually be enforced,” said Sarhan, describing investors as sceptical the biggest levies will actually be enacted.

Among individual companies, Levi Strauss & Co shot up 11.2 per cent after reporting higher profits on a 6.4 per cent rise in revenues. The denim company scored especially solid growth in the Americas and Europe.

Earnings season accelerates next week with reports from large US banks, to be followed later in July by large technology companies and industrial players.

Next week’s calendar also includes consumer price data for June, a key benchmark for US Federal Reserve monetary policy. AFP