Wall Street today: S&P 500, Dow Jones, Nasdaq slump as trade war worries deepen

Wall Street stocks slumped on Tuesday as worries of a global trade war deepened.

Investors grew increasingly nervous about how US trade tariffs will erode economic growth. 

At 09:38 am ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 394.50 points, or 0.91%, to 42,796.74, the S&P 500 lost 40.78 points, or 0.70%, to 5,808.94 and the Nasdaq Composite lost 86.90 points, or 0.47%, to 18,263.29.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq dropped over 1% to 18,125.54 points, a drop of more than 10% from its recent closing high of 20,173.89 hit on December 16. 

US President Donald Trump imposed new tariffs on Monday.

The new 25% tariffs on imports from Mexico and Canada took effect at 0501 GMT.

Trump also doubled duties on Chinese goods to 20%. 

China retaliated with additional 10%-15% tariffs on certain US imports from March 10 and a series of new export restrictions for designated US companies.

Bullion

Gold prices rose on Tuesday, driven by a weaker US dollar and heightened safe-haven demand.

Spot gold was up 0.9% at $2,918.90 an ounce as of 09:12 am ET (1154 GMT). US gold futures were up 1% at $2,929.20.

Spot silver added 0.7% to $31.89 an ounce.