U.S. markets are falling further on news that China has responded to America’s new tariff regime with retaliatory duties of up to 34% on all imported U.S. goods.
The blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average is down another 800 points in premarket trading after falling nearly 1,700 points on April 3.
The benchmark S&P 500 index is down another 2% after falling 5% a day earlier. And the technology-heavy Nasdaq index is down 3% after dropping 6% the previous trading session.
The continued selloff comes as the prospect of an all-out trade war between the U.S. and China, the world’s two biggest economies, becomes a reality.
China’s finance ministry declared that it would impose a 34% tariff on all goods imported from the U.S. starting on April 10 in the wake of similar duties imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump.
While the European Union, Canada, and others, have responded with targeted retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods, China is one of the few nations to say it is imposing blanket duties on all U.S. products.
Investors and markets remain extremely nervous about the impacts of a trade war on the U.S. economy, as well as the global economy.
On April 3, stock markets around the world suffered this largest one-day decline since March 2020, when the World Health Organization declared the outbreak of Covid-19 to be a pandemic.