Wall Street Suffers Another Losing Session Amid Trump's Shifting Tariff Policy

Wall Street suffered through another selloff Thursday for the third time this week, a negative reaction sparked by President Donald Trump's shifting stances on tariffs.

One day after Trump placed a 30-day pause on his 25% tariffs on the auto industry, Trump extended the delay to include products from Canada that comply with the USMCA trade deal.

The Dow Jones declined by 427.51 points, down nearly 1% to 42,579.08 points, while the Nasdaq Composite plummeted 2.61% to close down 10% from its recent highs. The S&P 500 dropped 1.78% to its lowest finish November 2023.

"You're just having confusion," Keith Lerner, chief market strategist at Truist, told CNBC. "That confusion is permeating into the day-to-day swings of the market."

Trump's back-and-forth positions on tariffs exacerbated fears of investors, who saw the Dow drop more than 1,300 points on Monday and Tuesday before rebounding Wednesday on news of the pause on auto tariffs.

But the extension rattled markets over the uncertainty of a trade war. Canada, Mexico and China have respond with tariffs of their own, and reciprocal tariffs that are set to go into affect April 2 look to broaden the issues on international trade.