US stocks end day lower on customs but in close month with gains

On February 1, 2025By Littum

Wall Street closed weaker Friday, pressed late in the day by the White House comments that 25% duties in Mexican and Canadian goods and a 10% tax on Chinese products would begin on Saturday.

A Reuters report said the collection of the duties of Mexico and Canada would be delayed until March 1, but the White House denied it.

The wide S&P 500 closed 0.5%or 30.64 points to 6,040.53; Dow with blue chip fell 0.37%or 337.47 points to 44,544.66; And the tech-heavy Nasdaq dropped 0.28%or 54.31 points to 19,627.44. Even with Friday’s loss, the three major indices ended the next month. Benchmark 10-year yield rose to 4,553%.

The charges are in return for “the illegal fentanyl that they have picked up and are allowed to distribute to our country,” said Karoline Leavitt, press secretary in the White House.

WSJ said some officials are looking for an appointment at the last minute to avoid adopting customs.

Tariffs add to ai fear

On Monday, Stocks tumbled after China’s Deepseek said it built an artificial intelligence competing with Openai and Chatgpt, but at a fraction of the award. It questioned the US mega costs of building AI models and caused the White House to consider limiting Nvidia’s chip sales to China. Nvidia -Managing Director Jensen Huang is expected to meet President Donald Trump on Friday to discuss AI policy.

Shares jumped back a little around the middle of the week after Microsoft and the Facebook parent Meta repeated their AI expenses, and Quelling of fear would companies withdraw AI-Dollars.

Next week, Google Parent Alphabet and Online Retail Giant Amazon will report earnings.

Gold prices are rising to detect high

Gold prices rose to a record high and set their best monthly performance since August 2011 before facilitating back at the end of the day. Gold prices have risen as investors have flowed to the yellow metal in a time of economic and global uncertainty. Investors are uncertain about how Trump’s customs threats will play out.

Although 25% duties in Canada and Mexico and 10% taxes on China have been repeated this weekend, no one knows yet whether tariffs will be everywhere or whether there will be exceptions. If it’s a carpet movement, some economists say just duty in Canada and Mexico can interfere with almost $ 1.6 trillion in annual trade. China, Mexico and Canada account for too little over 42% of all goods imported into the United States, said James Knightley, head of international economist at Dutch Bankt.

Tariffs could also increase US inflation, which has recently been fixed instead of falling to the 2% level that Federal Reserve wants.

Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation meter, the US price index for personal consumption expenses (PCE), increased 0.3% last month after a non -employed 0.1% gain in November in line with economists’ expectations. But core PCE, which excludes volatile foods and energy sectors, remained stuck at 2.8%.

“While today’s results do not completely arise the ongoing disinfootar trend, it is another month of data that shows that inflation remains persistent over Fed’s 2%target,” said Lauren Saidel-Baker, economist at ITR Economics. If Trump customs rates add inflation this year, it will “limit Fed’s ability to continue the rate cutting cycle well into 2025. It is possible that we will even see rate increases by the end of the year.”

But circles back to Deepseeks cost -effective AI, “If AI ends up with cheaper and more far -reaching, this will be good for productivity, good for inflation and good for economic growth,” said Mark Dowding, Bluebay Chief Investment Officer at RBC Global Asset Management. “It’s just not good for those investors who may have been chasing a step in some shares.”

Gold closed about half a percentage point to $ 2,830.50 per year. Ounce.

Business news

When investors are waiting to see what Trump’s policy will bring, they are focused on business news for operating stock market direction. Among the greatest movements of the day,

IPhone manufacturer Apple said late Thursday that the topped quarterly earnings estimates and reported gross margins. Shares gave up early gains to complete 0.67%.
ABBVIE shares ran 4.7%after the drug company topped earnings estimates in the last three months of the year and provided an optimistic sales prospects for its immune disease medicine Skyrizi and Rinvoq.
Vertex Pharmaceuticals received the approval of food and drug administration to Journavx, the first new painkiller painkillers for decades. Shares ended with 5.31%.
Walgreens shares fell 10.3% for the worst day since June after the pharmacy chain stopped its dividend to save money.
Oil giant Chevron missed quarterly earnings estimates and its shares fell 4.56%.
Consumer Goods Company Colgate-Palmolive’s Quarterly Sales Missed Wall Street’s forecasts. Shares fell 4.66%.

Bitcoin

Bitcoin gave up some of the gains after Fed -Chairman Jerome Powell commented Crypto after the central bank’s political meeting late Wednesday.

In response to a reporter’s questions about the risk of digital assets, Powell said the banks are “perfectly capable of operating crypto customers as long as they understand and can control the risk” and added that “a larger regulatory apparatus around crypto” from Congress would be “very constructive.”

The comments came on the heels of Trump’s favorable view of Bitcoin. He suggested setting up a national strategic Bitcoin reserve. Securities and Exchange Commission under Trump is also expected to be cryptic.

Bitcoin was last down by 2.71% to $ 101,886.50.

Medora Lee is a money, markets and reporter of personal economy in USA Today. You can reach her at [email protected] and Subscribe to our free daily money newsletter For personal financial tips and business news every Monday to Friday morning.