US Stock Market Close: Trump Escalates Tariff Threats Again, S&P 500 Falls for 4 Consecutive Days

As US President Donald Trump abruptly proposed a tariff hike on the European Union (EU) and Apple on Friday, the three major US stock indices collectively weakened amid shock and skepticism, with the S&P 500 recording its fourth consecutive daily decline.

By the close of trading, the S&P 500 fell 0.67% to 5,802.82 points, the Nasdaq Composite Index dropped 1% to 18,737.21 points, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 0.61% to 41,603.07 points. For the week, the S&P 500 fell 2.61%, the Nasdaq dropped 2.47%, and the Dow fell 2.47%.

(Daily chart of the S&P 500 Index, source: TradingView)

This level of decline is sufficient to show thatthe market currently does not fully believe that Trump will impose a 50% tariff on the EU on June 1. Based on the understanding of the past two months, two weeks is enough time for Trump's policies to take several turns.

Therefore, at Friday's press conference, a reporter directly asked him, "How do you plan to reach an agreement with the EU in nine days?"

Trump downplayed the possibility of reaching an agreement with the EU, emphasizing: "They're not handling it the right way. I just said it's time to play the game my way, which I'm familiar with."

Meanwhile, Trump also expanded the threat of imposing a 25% tariff on Apple to all mobile phone manufacturers, including Samsung, and stated that the government is pushing to implement this tax before month-end.

Ross Mayfield, an investment strategist at Baird, interpreted this as follows: "Over the past six weeks or so, the market has been riding the wave of easing trade tensions, which has also been one of the best six-week periods for the market in the past 75 years. The escalation of trade war rhetoric threatens this situation.Unless things really deteriorate, I don't think we'll retest the lows or anything like that. But from the market's perspective, this is undoubtedly a step in the wrong direction."

As the latest evidence of Trump's flip-flopping, he ambiguously stated on Friday that he supports a "partnership" between US Steel and Nippon Steel. According to Japanese media citing White House sources, Trump has approved Nippon Steel's offer to acquire US Steel. Prior to this, he had repeatedly expressed complete opposition to the acquisition of US Steel, a symbol of American manufacturing, by foreign capital.

Performance of Popular Stocks

US tech giants fell across the board, with Apple down 3.02%, Microsoft down 1.03%, Amazon down 1.04%, Nvidia down 1.16%, Alphabet (Google-A) down 1.40%, Tesla down 0.5%, Meta down 1.49%, and Advanced Micro Devices down 0.36%.

By comparison, Chinese ADRs showed greater resilience, with the Nasdaq Golden Dragon China Index closing up 0.05%.

At the close, Alibaba fell 0.62%, JD.com dropped 1.01%, Baidu declined 0.31%, Pinduoduo decreased 0.47%, Bilibili rose 3.19%, NIO fell 1.55%, NetEase increased 0.61%, Futu Holdings rose 0.29%, Li Auto gained 0.84%, XPeng Motors fell 2.44%, EHang Holdings dropped 2.19%, Niu Technologies surged 12.19%, Tencent Music Entertainment Group rose 3.48%, Youdao gained 2.32%, and Trip.com Group rose 2.08%.

Corporate News

[Trump Supports "Cooperation" Between Nippon Steel and US Steel]

US President Donald Trump stated on Friday that US Steel will "remain in the US" and form a "partnership" with Nippon Steel. He also mentioned that this collaboration would create at least 70,000 jobs and add $14 billion to the US economy, with most investments to be completed within the next 14 months.

Although Trump's remarks were unclear, Japanese media quoted White House sources as saying that he meant he had approved Nippon Steel's offer to acquire US Steel. Driven by this news, US Steel closed up 21.24% on Friday.

[Ming-Chi Kuo: Apple's Issues Go Beyond Tariffs, There's Also Trump's Attention]

In response to Trump's threat to impose a 25% tariff on Apple, renowned analyst Ming-Chi Kuo commented that, in terms of profit, it would be far better for Apple to absorb the 25% tariff than to move its production lines to the US. The key point is that this is the second time Trump has made comments targeting Apple recently, which is a signal that cannot be ignored.

Kuo pointed out that before Trump leaves office, it is unrealistic to assemble iPhones for the US market in the US. Therefore, even if Apple reaches a temporary agreement with Trump to avoid tariffs this time, it is difficult to guarantee that Apple will not face tariff threats from time to time before Trump leaves office.

[Trump Signs Nuclear Energy Revitalization Order, Nuclear Energy Industry Chain Soars]

On Friday local time, Trump signed four executive orders aimed at accelerating the construction of nuclear power plants in the US, including new-generation small advanced reactors. One order requires the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to streamline its regulations and approve applications for new reactors within no more than 18 months. Another order directs the Department of Energy and the Department of Defense to explore sites on federal land and military bases for reactor construction, possibly alongside new data centers.

As a result, the nuclear energy industry chain collectively surged. Small nuclear reactor startups Oklo and NuScale saw gains of 23.04% and 19.43%, respectively, on Friday, while uranium miners Uranium Energy and Energy Fuels rose by 25% and 20%, respectively. The Global X Uranium ETF (URA) gained 11.61%.

[Market News: Oracle Plans to Spend $40 Billion on NVIDIA Chips]

According to media reports, Oracle plans to invest approximately $40 billion to purchase 400,000 NVIDIA GB200 chips to support OpenAI's "Stargate" project in Texas for training and running AI applications. The new data center is expected to become operational by mid-2026.

[Amazon Accused of Selling "Contaminated Rice"]

In a class-action lawsuit, Amazon was accused of selling rice contaminated with arsenic and heavy metals. A study found that 18 types of rice sold by the e-commerce giant contained toxic chemicals, including Amazon's private-label brands.