Stocks stumbled Friday as worries flared yet again that President Donald Trump’s trade war with China may be worsening. It was a fitting end to a wild week where markets zoomed down, up and down again as investors recalibrated by the minute how much the tensions will hurt the global economy.
The S&P 500 dropped as much as 1.3% Friday after Trump said that it would be “fine” if a meeting on trade with China next month doesn’t happen, before nearly eliminating the loss. It dropped again in the final minutes of trading and ended the day at 2,918.65, down 19.44 points, or 0.7%.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 90.75, or 0.3%, to 26,287.44, and the Nasdaq lost 80.02, or 1%, to 7,959.14.
To anyone not paying attention, the numbers could paint the last week as a ho-hum one for markets: The S&P 500 was down just 0.5%. But that stretch included the worst plunge of the year for the S&P 500, as well as its best day in months.
Through the week, investors’ mood pinballed from fear that China was raising the stakes in the trade war by weakening its currency to relief that the yuan’s drop wasn’t more sharp and back to concern that the U.S. and China may not even meet next month to talk about their problems. All of that was follow-up to Trump’s threat last week to impose more tariffs on Chinese goods.
Underscoring the uncertainty, investors said they had no good explanations for some of the sharp swings that stocks had over the last week.