STORY: Stocks finished flat to lower Friday, with the Dow dropping about a third of one percent and the S&P 500 and Nasdaq ending near break even.
All three indexes dipped earlier in the session after a Financial Times report indicated U.S. President Donald Trump was pushing for steep new tariffs on European Union products.
The report said the Trump administration was eyeing a minimum tariff of between 15% and 20% in any deal with the European bloc.
Joseph Shaposhnik, portfolio manager with Rainwater Equity, says he isn’t concerned about any lingering effects of these negotiations or the ultimate deals.
“Tariffs will be a persistent topic of conversation in a driver of markets to some extent for some period of time, but not for the indefinite future. And we think there will be a lot of bluster. That's it. A lot of loud conversations, a lot of headlines, but at the end of the day, we're most likely to end up basically where we started in terms of tariff rates in general. Perhaps there'll be some level of elevated tariffs.” // “But they will not be significant enough to really impact the overall economy. We're going to end up basically where we started.”
Economic data this week offered mixed signals, including robust retail sales, a rise in consumer inflation, and flat producer prices for June.
Data released on Friday showed the University of Michigan's closely watched consumer sentiment index rose this month, though consumers remained concerned about future price pressures.
And earnings season kicked off this week, giving an opportunity to U.S. corporations to showcase how tariffs were, or were not, affecting their businesses.
Stocks on the move included 3M which fell more than three and a half percent after the company said the impact of tariffs will mostly be felt in the second half of the year.
And shares of Netflix fell five percent despite the success of “Squid Game” helping the company surpass earnings forecasts. The streaming company also lifted its annual revenue outlook.
