Stocks Drop After U.S. Imposes Tariffs on Steel, Aluminum

Investors sell off shares of big industrial manufacturers; Boeing is among the Dow industrials’ biggest decliners.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average tumbled more than 250 points Thursday after the Trump administration made good on its plan to impose tariffs on steel and aluminum imports.

Investors broadly sold off shares of big manufacturers and globe-spanning corporations over concerns that tariffs imposed on steel and aluminum products from Canada, Mexico and the European Union would ignite a trade war that could hurt corporate profits, stoke inflation and possibly disrupt the synchronized global growth that fueled much of the market’s historic climb last year.

After Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said Thursday morning that tariffs would be imposed on those countries as soon as Friday, Mexico, Canada and the EU all promised retaliatory measures on steel and aluminum from the U.S., as well as on various goods, food and agricultural products.

“There has to be recognition by the market that any tariffs imposed by any government on any trade across borders is a tax on the system,” said Jason Pride, chief investment officer for private clients at Glenmede Trust Co. While the proposed tariffs so far amount to a small portion of the affected countries’ economies, analysts said, the tit-for-tat responses have the potential to lead to a protracted trade war.

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