By TipRanks

The major averages were sharply lower again near noon, continuing yesterday’s post-tariff slide. China has retaliated with additional tariffs of 34% on all U.S. goods a day after the Trump administration imposed its own sweeping levies. Meanwhile, the latest U.S. jobs data show that nonfarm payrolls rose by a higher-than-forecast 228,000 jobs, though the unemployment rate has ticked higher.

Looking to commodities, oil prices are sharply lower due to a planned output increase promised by OPEC+ as well as concerns about what the trade war may due to global economic growth. Additionally, gold prices are falling nearly 2% to below $3,100.

1. STOCK NEWS:

• China has announced plans to place extra 34% tariffs on U.S. goods starting April 10 in retaliation to new tariffs from the U.S.
• March U.S. nonfarm payrolls rose 228,000, with unemployment rising to 4.2%
• AppLovin (APP) said it has provided an indication of interest to President Trump to explore a purchase of TikTok in all markets outside China
• Guess (GES) reported better-than-expected Q4 results and named Alberto Toni as its new CFO
• Nintendo (NTDOY) is delaying Switch 2 pre-orders in the U.S. to “assess the potential impact of tariffs”

2. WALL STREET CALLS:

• Booking Holdings (BKNG) upgraded to Buy at BTIG ahead of expected Q1 beat
• Nordstrom (JWN) downgraded to Sell at Citi
• JPMorgan cut Tesla (TSLA) estimates on “unprecedented brand damage”
• Dow Inc. (DOW) downgraded to Neutral at JPMorgan
• BTIG downgraded Upwork (UPWK) with fundamentals “primed to take another leg down”

3. AROUND THE WEB:

• Ford (F) is extending its employee discounts to all new car buyers, WSJ reports
• Stellantis (STLA) plans to extend its employee-discount program to the public on most new models, WSJ says
• Nio (NIO) has commenced a new round of layoffs in Europe in an effort to lower operational costs by 25% at a global scale, EV reports
• Meta’s (META) latest large language model for AI, Llama 4, is running behind schedule as the company has pushed back the release date of Llama 4 at least twice and could do so again, The Information says
• Oracle (ORCL) told customers a hacker broke into a computer system and stole old client log-in credentials, Bloomberg reports

4. MOVERS:

• GameStop (GME) increases after announcing CEO Ryan Cohen bought 500K shares
• BCE (BCE) gains in New York after National Bank upgraded the stock to Outperform
• Toyota (TM) falls after Nikkei Asia said the company will help cover suppliers’ higher costs tied to tariffs
• DuPont China (DD) lower after China Daily reported China’s State Administration for Market Regulation has launched a probe into the company for suspected monopolistic practices
• Renovaro (RENB) slips after Predictive Oncology (POAI) terminated their merger transaction

5. EARNINGS/GUIDANCE:

• American Shared Hospital (AMS) reported Q4 results, with EPS lower year-over-year
• Radius Recycling (RDUS) reported Q2 results, with EPS and revenue beating consensus
• Arqit Quantum (ARQQ) provided guidance for 1H of 2025
• AbbVie (ABBV) provided guidance for Q1 and FY25
• Lifecore (LFCR) reported Q3 results, with EPS missing consensus

INDEXES:

Near midday, the Dow was down 3.52%, or 1,425.30, to 39,120.63, the Nasdaq was down 3.87%, or 640.67, to 15,909.94, and the S&P 500 was down 3.96%, or 213.67, to 5,182.85.

Source: Yahoo.com