WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - After moving sharply lower early in the session, stocks have regained some ground over the course of the trading day on Friday. The major averages have climbed well off their worst levels of the day but remain firmly in negative territory.
Currently, the Nasdaq is down 219.20 points or 1.2 percent at 18,706.54, the S&P 500 is down 59.40 points or 1.0 percent at 5,782.61 and the Dow is down 361.62 points or 0.9 percent at 41,497.47.
The initial slump on Wall Street came after President Donald Trump threatened to impose 50 percent tariffs on imports from the European Union beginning June 1st.
Trump claimed in a post on Truth Social that the EU has 'been very difficult to deal with' and said trade talks with the bloc are 'going nowhere!'
In a separate Truth Social, Trump also threatened to impose a 25 percent tariff on Apple (AAPL) iPhones that are not manufactured in the U.S. Shares of Apple have tumbled by 2.2 percent following the news.
Trump's threats have led to renewed to trade concerns, which had waned considerably in recent weeks after the U.S. reached trade deals with the U.K. and China.
Meanwhile, traders are also looking ahead to earnings news from Nvidia (NVDA), with the AI daring scheduled to release its fiscal first quarter results after the close of trading next Wednesday.
On the U.S. economic front, the Commerce Department released a report showing new home sales in the U.S. in the month of April spiked compared to a significantly downwardly revised level in March.
The report said new home sales soared by 10.9 percent to an annual rate of 743,000 in April after jumping by 2.6 percent to a downwardly revised rate of 670,000 in March.
Economists had expected new home sales to tumble by 4.4 percent to a rate of 692,000 from the 724,000 originally reported for the previous month.
Sector News
Semiconductor stocks have shown a significant move to the downside on the day, dragging the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index down by 2.0 percent.
Considerable weakness is also visible among networking stocks, as reflected by the 1.5 percent loss being posted by the NYSE Arca Networking Index.
Computer hardware, banking and retail stocks have also shown notable moves to the downside, while gold stocks are bucking the downtrend amid a sharp increase by the price of the precious metal.
Other Markets
In overseas trading, stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region turned in a mixed performance during trading on Friday. Japan's Nikkei 225 Index rose 0.5 percent, while China's Shanghai Composite Index slid by 0.9 percent.
Meanwhile, the major European markets have all moved to the downside on the day. While the French CAC 40 Index is down by 2.1 percent, the German DAX Index is down by 1.6 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index is down by 0.6 percent.
In the bond market, treasuries are extending the rebound seen in the previous session. Subsequently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, is down by 3.4 basis points at 4.519 percent.
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