U.S. stocks open sharply lower as the Trump tariffs pause rally cools

The S&P 500 opened 2% lower on Thursday, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 715 points, or -1.76%, following futures that signaled a slight pullback.

Although the historic rally for U.S. indexes had extended into broader risk asset markets, the S&P 500 futures had fallen 2.07%. Dow futures gave up 636 points, or about -1.56%, while futures tied to the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 tumbled 2.54%.

At the open, the Nasdaq extended losses to 3% in early trades, with Apple and Tesla shares declining more than 3% and 5%, respectively. Nvidia also dipped sharply, down 4.9% at open, while Meta Platforms dropped 3.7%.

These declines across the major indexes came after historic rallies on April 9. But experts, including economist Mohamed El-Erian urge caution.