U.S. Stocks Moving Notably Lower Amid Renewed Tariff Uncertainty

(RTTNews) - Stocks have moved notably lower during trading on Monday, giving back ground following the upward move seen over the course of last Friday's session. The major averages have all moved to the downside, with the Dow showing a significant drop.

The major averages have seen further downside in recent trading, hitting new lows for the session. The Dow is down 665.40 points or 1.3 percent at 48,960.57, the Nasdaq is down 191.44 points or 0.8 percent at 22,694.63 and the S&P 500 is down 56.04 points or 0.8 percent at 6,853.47.

The weakness on Wall Street comes amid renewed trade uncertainty following the Supreme Court's decision last Friday striking down most of President Donald Trump's sweeping global tariffs.

Trump announced in a post on Truth Social on Saturday that he would be raising worldwide tariffs to the "fully allowed" and "legally tested" 15 percent level from the 10 percent he announced shortly after the ruling.

"During the next short number of months, the Trump Administration will determine and issue the new and legally permissible Tariffs, which will continue our extraordinarily successful process of Making America Great Again - GREATER THAN EVER BEFORE!!!" Trump said.

Meanwhile, the European Commission issued a statement requesting "full clarity" on the steps the U.S. intends to take following the Supreme Court decision.

The European Commission called the current situation "not conducive" to delivering "fair, balanced, and mutually beneficial" transatlantic trade and investment, as agreed to by both sides and spelled out in the EU-U.S. Joint Statement of August 2025.

"A deal is a deal," the European Commission said. "As the United States' largest trading partner, the EU expects the U.S. to honour its commitments set out in the Joint Statement - just as the EU stands by its commitments."

In U.S. economic news, the Commerce Department released a report showing new orders for U.S. manufactured goods pulled back in line with expectations in the month of December.

The Commerce Department said factory orders slid by 0.7 percent in December after surging by 2.7 percent in November. The decrease matched economist estimates.

Sector News

Banking stocks have shown a substantial move to the downside on the day, dragging the KBW Bank Index down by 3.8 percent to its lowest intraday level in over two months.

Significant weakness is also visible among software stocks, as reflected by the 3.3 percent slump by the Dow Jones U.S. Software Index.

The sell-off by software stocks comes after Jefferies downgrade its ratings on several software companies, including DocuSign (DOCU) Fresworks (FRSH) and Workday (WDAY), to Hold from Buy.

Airline, brokerage and networking stocks are also seeing considerable weakness, while gold stocks have moved sharply higher along with the price of the precious metal.

Other Markets

In overseas trading, stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region turned in a mixed performance on Monday, with markets in Japan and China closed for holidays. Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index surged by 2.5 percent, while Australia's S&P/ASX 200 Index slid by 0.6 percent.

The major European markets have also turned mixed on the day. While the German DAX Index is down by 0.8 percent, the French CAC 40 Index and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index are both up by 0.1 percent.

In the bond market, treasuries have moved higher due to their appeal as a safe haven amid the tariff uncertainty. Subsequently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, is down by 3.0 basis points at 4.056 percent.