US Stocks Mixed As Trade Wars Escalate After Tariff Hike

Wall Street stocks were mixed in early trading Wednesday as markets digested the latest tariff hike by the United States and retaliatory moves by China and the European Union.

About 15 minutes into trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.5 percent at 37,465.28.

The broad-based S&P 500 dipped 0.1 percent to 4,976.88, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index gained 0.7 percent to 15,367,67.

The indecisive early trading follows Tuesday's volatile session in which stocks rallied in the morning on hopes of trade accords only to finish the day sharply lower after the White House confirmed plans to hike China tariffs significantly.

New US levies of 104 percent on Chinese goods went into force early Wednesday, prompting Beijing's finance minister to raise their tariffs to 84 percent on US goods.

The EU, meanwhile, adopted its first measures hitting back at Trump's tariff onslaught, targeting more than 20 billion euros of US products including soybeans, motorcycles and beauty products.

Besides worries about a recession due to the tariffs, investors have also been unnerved by rising Treasury bond yields.

"The safe-haven bid has seemingly flown the coop, and the reason why isn't entirely clear, which itself is a rattling factor for investor confidence," said Briefing.com analyst Patrick O'Hare, who pointed to worries about foreign selling interest and a  need for cash to cover margin calls as possible explanations.

US equities briefly jumped into positive territory after Trump posted a message on social media to "BE COOL...THIS IS A GREAT TIME TO BUY!!!"

But within moments, stocks had quickly reverted back to near their prior level.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)