Wall Street, cornered by tariffs, plunges in May

New York (New York) – May 31^st 2019 17:14

Wall Street again fell heavily on Friday and closed May on its first monthly drop of the year, affected by Donald Trump’s threats to impose punitive customs duties on Mexican imports.According to the final results at closing, Wall Street’s flagship index, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, fell 1.41% to 24,815.04 points.The Nasdaq index, with strong technological coloration, fell by 1.51%, to 7,453.15 points.The broad S & P 500 index dropped 1.32% to 2,752.06 points.”Donald Trump has extended the trade war and is now heading straight for the storm,” said Peter Cardillo of Spartan Capital.As of June 10, the United States will impose additional customs duties of 5% on goods imported from Mexico, as long as illegal immigrants continue to flock to the United States through the Mexican border, said Thursday Donald Trump.Directly worried because highly dependent on the Mexican market in terms of production or outsourcing, the titles of car manufacturers were very shaken: General Motors lost 4.25%, Fiat Chrysler 5.82%, and Ford 2 , 26%.

– Oil –Highly sensitive to the economic environment, technology stocks were also affected: Amazon lost 2.27%, Facebook 3.03% and Microsoft 1.63%.Oil stocks were also weak, due to a plunge in oil prices for the same reasons. ExxonMobil lost 1.67%.The threat of Trump on Thursday came to close a month of May marked already May 5 by the announcement of the increase of 10% to 25% of customs duties on 200 billion dollars of Chinese goods imported to the United States.This trade dispute has led to increased market fever, leading to their first monthly decline since December: the Dow Jones lost 6.69%, the Nasdaq 7.93% and the S & P 500 6.58%.The announcement of 5 May itself followed other punitive taxes on more than 250 billion dollars of goods for almost a year that lasts the standoff between Beijing and Washington.This commercial drama experienced new adventures on Friday. Beijing has announced the creation of its own black list of “unreliable” foreign companies without giving a name, in response to the US offensive against his flagship Huawei.In addition, 5,410 US products will be taxed Saturday at 10%, 20% or even 25% on a set of US goods already penalized upon entry into China. This measure, which targets $ 60 billion in annual imports, is a response to the tariffs announced on May 5 by Donald Trump.In the bond market, the ten-year US rate continued its free fall after having already fallen sharply in recent days: it reached Friday a new low since September 2017, at 2.1263%.The fall in interest rates means that investors prefer to abandon risky assets, such as equities, in favor of safer investments, such as US government bonds. The decline in the interest rate usually occurs when demand rises, paralleling the price of these financial products.Among the other values ​​of the day, Uber (+ 1.53%) was one of the few values ​​to maintain in this depressed environment.Despite difficult stock market starts and uncertainties surrounding the economic model, the group reassured investors Thursday with its quarterly results, which confirmed strong losses but also a rise in activity, helped by its meal delivery service.Uber lost $ 1 billion in the first quarter, about twice as much as last year and saw its revenue increase 20% to $ 3.1 billion.