US Stocks Fall on Tariff News, AI      02/23 15:27

   U.S. stocks slumped Monday after President Donald Trump ramped up his newest 
tariffs, while investors continued to punish companies that could be losers in 
the artificial-intelligence revolution.

   NEW YORK (AP) -- U.S. stocks slumped Monday after President Donald Trump 
ramped up his newest tariffs, while investors continued to punish companies 
that could be losers in the artificial-intelligence revolution.

   The S&P 500 fell 1% after Trump said on Saturday that he would place 
temporary 15% tariffs on other countries. That's up from the 10% rate he 
announced Friday following a Supreme Court ruling that struck down his sweeping 
"reciprocal" taxes on imports from around the world.

   The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 821 points, or 1.7%, and the Nasdaq 
composite sank 1.1%.

   Trump's quick move toward more aggressive tariffs shows how much uncertainty 
still hangs over the global economy, even after the Supreme Court said the 
president lacked the legal authority to institute his sweeping "reciprocal" 
tariffs.

   Beyond a 15% tariff that could last for up to 150 days, unless Congress 
extends it further, Trump is moving forward on other avenues to place more 
permanent tariffs on countries and industries. That has trading partners 
uneasy. South Korea's trade minister, Kim Jung-kwan, said Monday that 
uncertainty may worsen if the Trump administration continues imposing new 
tariffs under alternative laws.

   To be sure, Monday's moves for markets weren't close to as bad as the panic 
that swept the world in April, when Trump initially announced his "Liberation 
Day" tariffs. U.S. stocks were modestly higher for a brief moment during the 
morning.

   The U.S. dollar's value edged lower against other currencies. Bitcoin 
briefly fell below $64,000 but remained above its low point reached earlier 
this month. Gold continued to rise thanks to its reputation as something safer 
to own during uncertain times.

   Investors may be sensing it will take a long time, as well as more court 
battles, before more clarity comes about how global trade will look.

   "Stocks got a boost Friday from the Supreme Court's tariff ruling, but it 
quickly became clear that the decision was simply going to open a new chapter 
in the trade saga, not end it," according to Chris Larkin, managing director, 
trading and investing, at E-Trade from Morgan Stanley.

   On Wall Street, big losses hit companies under suspicion of getting undercut 
by AI-powered rivals. Investors have been sharply and suddenly punishing stocks 
of such companies recently.

   CrowdStrike fell 9.8% to widen its loss for the young year so far to 25.3%. 
A new tool from Anthropic that scans codebases for security vulnerabilities and 
suggests targeted software patches for human review has been hitting stocks 
across the cybersecurity industry.

   AppLovin sank 9.1% and took its loss for the year to date to 43.5%. It's 
among the software companies hurt by worries that AI competition will steal 
customers and fundamentally reset their industries.

   Companies that have lent money to software companies whose revenues may be 
under threat also continued falling, and Blue Owl Capital fell 3.4% to bring 
its loss for the year so far to 30.1%.

   More big moves may still be ahead for Wall Street this week, particularly 
with a profit report from Nvidia coming on Wednesday.

   Worries are rising that companies like Alphabet and Amazon may be spending 
so much on Nvidia's chips that they'll never be able to recoup their 
investments through higher productivity and future profits.

   Elsewhere on Wall Street, stocks of airlines fell after heavy snow and high 
winds canceled thousands of flights across the busy Northeast.

   United Airlines lost 5.2%, American Airlines fell 4.9% and Delta Air Lines 
sank 3.7%.

   Novo Nordisk's stock that trades in the United States tumbled 16.4% after 
the Danish drugmaker said a trial for its CagriSema drug showed people lost a 
smaller percentage of their weight after 84 weeks than with a similar one made 
by rival Eli Lilly. Eli Lilly rose 4.9%.

   All told, the S&P 500 fell 71.76 points to 6,837.75. The Dow Jones 
Industrial Average dropped 821.91 to 48,804.06, and the Nasdaq composite sank 
258.80 to 22,627.27.

   In stock markets abroad, indexes mostly fell in Europe. They had risen on 
Friday after the Supreme Court's ruling.

   In Asia, where markets got their first chance to react to the court's 
ruling, Hong Kong's Hang Seng jumped 2.5%, while South Korea's Kospi rose a 
more modest 0.6%. Markets in Japan and mainland China were closed for holidays.

   In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.03% from 
4.08% late Friday.

   A top official at the Federal Reserve said Monday that it's a "coin flip" on 
whether the Fed will cut its main interest rate at its next meeting in March or 
stand pat again.

   The comments from Fed. Gov. Christopher Waller were a notable shift from 
January, when he was one of the two Fed governors to dissent against the 
central bank's decision to hold its key rate steady after three rate cuts at 
the end of last year.

   Lower rates would give the economy a boost, and Trump has been lobbying 
angrily for them. But they also could risk worsening inflation.