Wall Street Slumps as Court Ruling on Tariffs Fuels Market Volatility

U.S. stocks fell sharply on tariff uncertainty, weak manufacturing data and sector losses while global markets and bond yields also swung lower.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq slumped 175.92 points (0.8%) to 21,279.63 but had tumbled by as much as 1.5% in early trading. The S&P 500 slid 44.72 points (0.7%) to 6,415.54, while the Dow fell 249.07 points (0.6%) to 42,295.81.

Wall Street faced an early sell-off after a U.S. appeals court ruled most of Trump?s global tariffs unconstitutional, though enforcement is delayed until October. Treasury yields spiked on fears the government may need to repay billions collected, while Trump insisted tariffs remain vital to the economy.

In U.S. economic news, the Institute for Supply Management released a report showing a slight increase by its reading on U.S. manufacturing activity in the month of August, although the index still indicated the sixth consecutive month of contraction while the ISM said its manufacturing PMI inched up to 48.7 in August after falling to a nine-month low of 48.0 in July, a reading below 50 still indicates contraction. The uptick matched economist estimates.

Steel stocks significant moved downwards, dragging the NYSE Arca Steel Index down by 1.7%. Commercial real estate was considerably weak, as reflected by the 1.7% loss posted by the Dow Jones U.S. Real Estate Index. Telecom, semiconductor and banking stocks too saw a notable weakness while gold and biotechnology stocks strongly moved upside.

Asia-Pacific stocks turned in a mixed performance. Japan's Nikkei 225 Index rose by 0.3%, while China's Shanghai Composite Index fell by 0.5%. The major European markets all moved to the downside on the day while the German DAX Index plunged by 2.3%, the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index slumped by 0.9% and the French CAC 40 Index slid by 0.7%.

In the bond market, treasuries climbed off their worst levels of the day after an early slump but remained firmly negative. Subsequently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, jumped 5 bps to 4.27%.

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