Trump could meet Canada and Mexico ‘in the middle’ on tariffs, Lutnick says

Wall Street stocks fell for the second day in a row on rising concerns Donald Trump’s tariffs will deal a blow to the US economy.

The blue-chip S&P 500 was down around 0.9 per cent on Tuesday afternoon, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite dipped 0.2 per cent.

The S&P 500 briefly on Tuesday fell below the November 5 closing price, meaning the gauge had wiped out all of its gains since the election. But it recovered slightly above those levels later in the session.

Stocks had initially rallied after Trump’s election victory, with investors betting that his promise of tax cuts and looser regulation would boost corporate profits.

As recently as two weeks ago, the S&P was at an all-time high, up more than 6 per cent since the vote.

However, those gains have since been largely erased as investors fret that the impact of Trump’s aggressively protectionist trade policy will hurt the US economy.

On Tuesday, the US imposed 25 per cent tariffs on Canada and Mexico, and an additional 10 per cent levy on China. All three countries indicated that they intended to take retaliatory measures in response, escalating fears of a trade war.