Investing.com-- The S&P 500 closed lower after giving up gains Tuesday weighed own by health care and consumer stocks as tariff-driven uncertainty continued to weighed on sentiment.
At 4:00 p.m. ET (21:00 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 156 points, or 0.4%, the S&P 500 index fell 0.2%, and the NASDAQ Composite fell 0.1%.
Health care stocks under pressure as Trump signals tariffs ahead
The Trump administration has said it is kicking off investigations into imports of pharmaceuticals and semiconductors products, as it gauges whether to impose tariffs on these sectors.
Health care stocks including Moderna Inc (BMV:MRNA) (NASDAQ:MRNA), Zimmer Biomet Holdings Inc (NYSE:ZBH), and Molina Healthcare Inc (NYSE:MOH) were among the biggest decliners on the day.
“The president of the United States has started a hurricane whose consequences will not end any time soon,” French Prime Minister Francois Bayrou said at a news conference in Paris. He said Trump’s decision to impose sweeping tariffs and confront longstanding allies has “shattered trust around the world” and intensified economic volatility.
The ongoing tariff uncertainty also hurt retail stocks as consumers spending is expected to take hit from higher price pressures.
Banks shine in Q1
The first-quarter earnings has started to pick up steam this week, with the results from a number of major banks pointed to resilience in corporate earnings despite growing economic headwinds.
Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) stock rose more than 3% after the lender reported a rise in net interest income in the first quarter, as tariff-driven volatility spurring on record equities trading revenue at its global markets unit.
Citigroup (NYSE:C) stock also gained more than 1% after the banking giant reported higher-than-anticipated first-quarter results, as it followed a trend set by other Wall Street lenders in logging a sharp, volatility-driven uptick in equities trading revenue.
Elsewhere, Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) stock fell 0.5% after the drugmaker reported first-quarter revenue and profit above expectations, driven again by strong sales of its cancer treatments, but revised its full-year forecast, cutting the earnings outlook.
In tech, Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) jumped more than 4% after the Wall Street Journal reported that the streaming giant is aiming to hit $1tn market cap and double its revenue by 2030.
Elsewhere, several Federal Reserve officials are also set to speak this week, most notably Chair Jerome Powell on Wednesday.
The focus is squarely on the central bank’s plans for interest rates amid heightened uncertainty over Trump’s tariffs and a potential U.S. recession.
In other news, OpenAI is considering building a social media network to rival other platforms such as X.
(Peter Nurse, Ambar Warrick contributed to this article.)