S&P 500 falls for the first day in four as tech stocks retreat: Live updates

Stocks dipped on Wednesday due to pressure by tech shares, as traders continue to grapple with uncertainty on the tariff front.

The S&P 500 lost 0.5%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average traded 59 points higher, or 0.1%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite shed 1.2%.

Nvidia shares tumbled more than 4%, while Tesla lost about 3.5%. Alphabet, Amazon and Meta each declined by more than 1%.

Investors are watching for signs that could indicate a rise in inflation and a potential economic slowdown, particularly as President Donald Trump’s April 2 start date for reciprocal tariffs looms.

Trump said in an interview with Newsmax on Tuesday said that tariffs will likely be more “lenient than reciprocal.” That softened stance adds onto reports from earlier this week that the duties could be more narrow in scope and that sector-specific tariffs are expected to be delayed.

Stocks closed slightly higher on Tuesday after sentiment appeared uplifted from these tariff reports. This overshadowed the release of March consumer confidence data that indicated U.S. consumers’ future outlook on income, business and job prospects dropped to their lowest reading in 12 years. But this doesn’t necessarily mean that a recession is on the horizon, according to Paul Hickey, co-founder of Bespoke Investment Group.

“The soft data looks terrible. If you look at the soft data, you’d say we’re in a recession right now — especially after today’s consumer confidence report — but it’s a matter of actions speaking louder than words. When you look at the hard data, we’re not seeing nearly the collapse that we’re seeing in the soft data,” he told CNBC on Tuesday.

“Over the last week, you’ve seen housing starts, building permits, industrial production, capacity utilization, new home sales today were all either in line with or better than expected,” Hickey added. “So that suggests that, at this point, we haven’t seen that transfer from not feeling good to actually not being good.”