Dow drops 600 points, S&P 500 falls the most since April after Trump’s China tariff threat

Stocks moved decidedly lower in a rapid move on Friday after President Donald Trump threatened higher tariffs on China, accusing the country of “becoming very hostile” with its restrictions on rare earth metals, a key resource for the tech and defense industries.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 649 points, or 1.4%. The S&P 500 lost 2%, while the Nasdaq Composite

 fell 2.7%. Prior to Trump’s comments, stocks were sizably higher, with the Nasdaq hitting a new all-time intraday high.

“I was to meet President Xi in two weeks, at APEC, in South Korea, but now there seems to be no reason to do so,” said Trump, in a post on Truth Social. “One of the policies that we are calculating at this moment is a massive increase of tariffs on Chinese products coming into the United States of America.”