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Stocks ended lower on Tuesday, extending Monday’s rout, as President Donald Trump doubled down on his trade war with Canada and a warning from Delta Air Lines sent many travel-related stocks tumbling.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged 478 points, or 1.1%, and the S&P 500 slid 0.8%. The Nasdaq closed down about 0.2% as a 1.7% rebound in Nvidia (NVDA+3.21%) and gains in some other Big Tech stocks weren’t enough to save the day. Shares of Apple (AAPL-2.74%) and Google parent Alphabet (GOOGL-0.62%) both declined.
Trump escalated his dispute with Canada by saying he would double tariffs on the country’s aluminum and steel to 50% after Ontario enacted a levy on electricity it sends to the U.S. The administration remains confident of the long-term benefit of its economic changes, a spokeswoman said.
“We are in a period of economic transition from that economic nightmare under a president who had no idea what he was doing, never held a private sector job in his life, into a golden age of American manufacturing,” Karoline Leavitt told reporters at the White House.
One bit of good economic news came through on Tuesday: U.S. job openings rose to 7.74 million in January from a revised 7.51 million in December, a sign that the labor market was holding steady as President Joe Biden left office. The consensus estimate had been for 7.6 million openings.
Tesla (TSLA+4.48%) stock staged a modest comeback from yesterday’s 15% plummet, rising 3.8%, as Trump said he’d buy one of Elon Musk’s EVs.
Delta Air Lines (DAL-7.09%) stock fell 7.3% after the company cut its first-quarter profit and sales forecasts on weaker domestic travel demand. It retained its full-year outlook. American Airlines (AAL-7.32%), Expedia (EXPE-7.60%), Booking Holdings (BKNG-2.22%), Hilton (HLT-2.25%) and Airbnb (ABNB-4.96%) shares also declined. Disney (DIS-4.47%) fell 5%, extending its recent decline.
Retailers also got pummeled. Kohl’s (KSS-23.90%) plunged 24% after its quarterly earnings missed consensus and its projections also fell short. Dick’s Sporting Goods (DKS-6.36%) fell 5.7% after a disappointing earnings outlook outweighed better-than-expected fiscal fourth-quarter results.
Southwest Airlines (LUV+8.45%) stock, by contrast, jumped 8.3% after the carrier said it will abandon its free-bags policy for most passengers, which analysts said will boost revenue but will also damage its brand and erode customer loyalty.
Oracle (ORCL-3.29%) dropped 3.1% after its fiscal third-quarter earnings fell short of analysts’ expectations.