By Caroline Valetkevitch
NEW YORK (Reuters) -U.S. stocks ended sharply lower on Wednesday as Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) warned about steep charges from new U.S. curbs on its chip exports to China and Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said U.S. economic growth appears to be slowing.
Powell, in remarks for the Economic Club of Chicago, said larger-than-expected tariffs likely mean higher inflation and slower growth. But he said the Fed would wait for more data on the economy’s direction before making any changes to interest rates.
The Fed chair’s afternoon comments sparked further selling in stocks, which had already been under pressure from a sharp drop in shares of Nvidia and other chipmakers.
"Powell is confirming what investors have been worried about, and that is the likelihood of slowing economic growth and more stubborn inflation as a result of the tariffs," said Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist at CFRA Research.
Nvidia said late on Tuesday it would take $5.5 billion in charges after the U.S. government limited exports of its H20 artificial-intelligence chip to China, a key market for one of its most popular chips.
It was among the latest developments in the U.S.-China trade fight. China raised its tariffs on imports of U.S. goods to 125% on Friday in a retaliatory move after U.S. President Donald Trump effectively raised U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods to 145%.
"The markets and investors want certainty and of this much I am certain: this year will be a more difficult year for investors than the last two cake walks," said Gina Bolvin, president of Bolvin Wealth Management Group in Boston.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 699.57 points, or 1.73%, to 39,669.39, the S&P 500 lost 120.93 points, or 2.24%, to 5,275.70 and the Nasdaq Composite lost 516.01 points, or 3.07%, to 16,307.16.
The Nasdaq had fallen as low as 16,066.46 during the session.
At the same time, Wall Street’s fear gauge, the Cboe Volatility index, rose, ending the day at 32.64.
Nvidia shares fell 6.9% on the day, while an index of semiconductor stocks dropped 4.1%. The new U.S. curbs also affected AMD (NASDAQ:AMD), whose shares fell 7.3%.
Also on Wednesday, Dutch chip-making tools giant ASML (AS:ASML) warned that the tariffs had led to increased uncertainty about its outlook.
"Markets continue to digest tariff implementation details that remain fluid, and as a result investors’, businesses’ and consumer uncertainty just remains incredibly high," said Bill Northey, senior investment director at U.S. Bank Wealth Management in Billings, Montana.
"Companies are beginning to cite impacts from tariffs and the generally negative implications that that uncertainty is breeding," he said.
Declining issues outnumbered advancers by a 1.58-to-1 ratio on the NYSE. On the Nasdaq, 1,469 stocks rose and 2,964 fell as declining issues outnumbered advancers by a 2.02-to-1 ratio.
Volume on U.S. exchanges was 16.08 billion shares, compared with the more than 18 billion average for the full session over the last 20 trading days.