Stock market today: Wall Street's slide extends after Trump raises tariffs on auto imports

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Stock market today: Wall Street's slide extends after Trump raises tariffs on auto imports

2025-03-27 20:00 Last Updated At：20:10

Wall Street pointed lower in premarket trading Thursday after President Donald Trump announced he will slap 25% tariffs on imported cars.

Futures for the S&P 500 were down 0.2% before the bell Thursday, while futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average were flat. Nasdaq futures dipped 0.4%.

Trump on Wednesday said he was raising duties on auto imports to encourage more production to relocate to the U.S. But the impact will be complicated since U.S. automakers and foreign manufacturers have plants around the world to accommodate global sales while maintaining competitive prices — and it could take years for companies to design, build and open the new factories that Trump is promising.

In premarket trading early Thursday, General Motors Co.'s shares sank 6.8%, while Ford Motor Co. narrowed its losses to less than 1% after being down more than 3% overnight.

In other premarket trading, Petco jumped 9% after the pet store chain beat analysts' fourth-quarter sales and profit projections. Investors bought up the retailer's shares even as the company projected another sales decline this year.

In Europe at midday, France's CAC 40 declined 0.3%, while Germany's DAX fell 0.8% and Britain's FTSE 100 dipped 0.6%.

In Asian trading, Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 lost 0.6% to finish at 37,799.97. Shares of automakers took big hits.

Toyota Motor Corp.'s stock fell 2%, while Honda Motor Co. stock dipped 2.5%. Nissan was down 1.7%. Mazda Motor Corp.'s shares dropped 6%, while Subaru's lost nearly 5%. Mitsubishi Motors Corp. lost 3.2%.

Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba has sought to persuade Trump to exempt Japan from the higher tariffs, and he reiterated his position Thursday.

”We strongly request that tariff measures not be applied to Japan,” he told reporters.

South Korea’s Kospi fell 1.4% to 2,607.15. Korean automakers also felt a chill from Trump's announcement. Hyundai Motor Co.'s shares traded in Seoul lost 4.3% while Kia Corp.'s shares dropped 3.5%.

Shares in Greater China, apart from Taiwan, were higher. Hong Kong's Hang Seng gained 0.4% to 23,578.80, while the Shanghai Composite index was up 0.2% at 3,373.75.

Chinese automakers and parts manufacturers have been expanding sales around the world, but not in the United States, so any impact from the tariffs announcement would be an indirect one.

But Taiwan's benchmark, the Taiex, sank 1.4%. In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 dropped 0.4% to 7,969.00.

Trade tensions are likely to heighten in coming weeks, analysts said.

“Higher trade barriers may disrupt supply chains and slow growth. Auto, metals, pharma and technology face a direct hit from U.S. tariffs,” said Eunice Tan, head of Asia-Pacific credit research at S&P Global Ratings.

“Fears of a sharper global downturn could hit demand and confidence, squeezing the region’s downstream and consumer discretionary sectors.”

AP Videographer Ayaka McGill contributed.

Quake death toll in Myanmar tops 1,600 and expected to rise as rescue work slowed by damage and war

2025-03-30 14:43 Last Updated At：14:51

BANGKOK (AP) — Emergency rescue teams on Sunday began trickling into the area of Myanmar hardest hit by a massive earthquake that killed more than 1,600 people, their efforts hindered by buckled roads, downed bridges, spotty communications and the challenges of operating in a country in the midst of a civil war.

The 7.7 magnitude quake hit midday Friday with an epicenter near Mandalay, Myanmar's second-largest city, bringing down scores of buildings and damaging other infrastructure like the city's airport.

Many of Mandalay's 1.5 million people spent the night sleeping on the streets, either left homeless by the quake, which also shook neighboring Thailand and killed at least 17 people there, or worried that the continuing aftershocks might cause structures left unstable to collapse.

So far 1,644 people have been reported killed in Myanmar and 3,408 missing, but many areas have not yet been reached, and many rescue efforts so far have been undertaken by people working by hand to try and clear rubble, said Cara Bragg, the Yangon-based manager of Catholic Relief Services in Myanmar.

“It's mainly been local volunteers, local people who are just trying to find their loved ones,” Bragg said after bring briefed by her colleague in Mandalay.

“I've also seen reports that now some countries are sending search and rescue teams up to Mandalay to support the efforts, but hospitals are really struggling to cope with the influx of injured people, there's a shortage of medical supplies, and people are struggling to find food and clean water,” Bragg added.

The organization was sending a team by road on Sunday to assess peoples' most pressing needs so that it could target its own response.

With the Mandalay airport damaged and the control tower toppled in the capital Naypitaw's airport, all commercial flights into the cities have been shut down.

Still, two Indian C-17 military transport aircraft were able to land late Saturday at Naypitaw with a field hospital unit and some 120 personnel who were then to travel north to Mandalay to establish a 60-bed emergency treatment center, according to the country's Foreign Ministry. Other Indian supplies were flown into Yangon, Myanmar's biggest city, which has been the hub of other foreign relief efforts.

On Sunday, a convoy of 17 Chinese cargo trucks carrying critical shelter and medical supplies was expected to reach Mandalay, after making the arduous journey by road from Yangon.

The 650-kilometer (400-mile) journey has been taking 14 hours or longer, with clogged roads and traffic diverted from the main highway to skirt damage from the earthquake.

At the same time, the window of opportunity to find anyone alive is rapidly closing. Most rescues occur within the first 24 hours after a disaster, and then survival chances drop as each day passes.

An initial report on earthquake relief efforts issued Saturday by the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs noted the severe damage or destruction of many health facilities, and warned that a “severe shortage of medical supplies is hampering response efforts, including trauma kits, blood bags, anesthetics, assistive devices, essential medicines, and tents for health workers.”

China said it has sent more than 135 rescue personnel and experts along with supplies like medical kits and generators, and pledged around $13.8 million in emergency aid. Russia’s Emergencies Ministry said it had flown in 120 rescuers and supplies to Yangon, and the country’s Health Ministry said Moscow had sent a medical team to Myanmar.

In neighboring Thailand, the quake rocked much of the county, bringing down a high-rise building under construction in Bangkok, some 1,300 kilometers (800 miles) away from the epicenter.

So far, 10 people have been found dead at the construction site near the popular Chatuchak market, where 83 people are unaccounted for and the latest body was recovered from the rubble early Sunday morning. A total of 17 people have been reported killed by the quake in Thailand so far.

In Myanmar, which is also known as Burma, rescue efforts so far are focused on Mandalay and Naypyitaw, which are thought to have been the hardest hit, but many other areas were also impacted and little is known so far about the damage there.

“We're hearing reports of hundreds of people trapped in different areas,” said Bragg. “Right now we're at 1,600 (known fatalities) and we don't have a lot of data coming out but you've got to assume it will be increasing in the thousands based on what the impacts are. This is just anecdotal information at this point.”

Beyond the earthquake damage, rescue efforts are complicated by the bloody civil war roiling much of the country, including in quake-affected areas. In 2001, the military seized power from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi, sparking what has since turned into significant armed resistance.

Government forces have lost control of much of Myanmar, and many places are dangerous or impossible for aid groups to reach. More than 3 million people have been displaced by the fighting and nearly 20 million are in need, according to the United Nations.

The government military has been fighting long-established militias and newly formed pro-democracy People's Defense Forces, and has heavily restricted much-needed aid efforts to the large population already displaced by war even before the earthquake.

On Saturday, Myanmar’s opposition shadow National Unity Government, to which the PDF militias are loyal, announced a unilateral partial ceasefire to facilitate earthquake relief efforts.

The military did not immediately comment on the announcement and it continued airstrikes even after the earthquake.

The Three Brotherhood Alliance, a group of three of Myanmar's most powerful and well-armed militias that launched a combined offensive in October 2023 that broke a strategic stalemate with the military regime, didn't mention a ceasefire in a statement Saturday, but said it was ready to help.

“We will promptly provide assistance to those affected by the earthquake to the best of our ability, with a spirit of humanity, unit and brotherhood,” the group said.

Jintamas Saksornchai contributed to this story.