Sell-off Worsens Worldwide and Dow Drops 1,000 After China Retaliates Against Trump Tariffs

The stock markets worldwide are careening even lower Friday after China matched President Donald Trump's big raise in tariffs in an escalating trade war.

- AGENCIES

Not even a better-than-expected report on the U.S. job market, which is usually the economic highlight of each month, was enough to stop the slide.

The S&P 500 was down 2.9 per cent in early trading, coming off its worst day since COVID wrecked the global economy in 2020. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 1,038 points, or 2.6 per cent, as of 9:53 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 2.9 per cent lower.

So far there are few, if any winners, in financial markets from the trade war. European stocks saw some of the day's biggest losses, with indexes sinking roughly 4 per cent. The price of crude oil tumbled to its lowest level since 2021. Other basic building blocks for growth, such as copper, also saw prices slide sharply on worries the trade war will weaken the entire global economy.