NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street is paring its losses after Mexico’s president said the United States will delay its tariffs on Mexican imports by a month, easing some of the worries about a potential trade war. The S&P 500 was down 0.7% in Monday morning trading after being down as much as 1.9% earlier. The Dow Jones Industrial Average trimmed its loss from 665 points to 162, while the Nasdaq composite fell 1%. Some of the sharpest losses hit Big Tech and stocks that would be hurt most by higher interest rates and the worse inflation that could result from tariffs.THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.NEW YORK (AP) — Worries about President Donald Trump’s tariffs are hurting U.S. stocks Monday as financial markets worldwide drop on concerns about a potential trade war.The S&P 500 was down 1% in morning trading following worse losses for stock markets across Asia and Europe. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 233 points, or 0.5%, as of 10:30 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 1.4% lower. The Dow had been down as many as 665 points in early trading.Everything from bitcoin to the Mexican peso fell, not just the stocks of U.S. companies expected to be the first to feel pain from Trump’s tariffs on goods imported from Canada, Mexico and China. On Wall Street, some of the sharpest losses hit Big Tech and other companies that could be hit hardest by higher interest rates.The fear is that Trump’s tariffs will push up prices for groceries, electronics and all kinds of other bills for U.S. households, putting upward pressure on a U.S. inflation rate that’s largely been slowing since its peak three summers ago. Stubbornly high or accelerating inflation could keep the Federal Reserve from cutting interest rates, which it began doing in September to give the U.S. economy a boost.Of course, U.S. stock prices remain close to their all-time high, which was set less than two weeks ago. And Monday’s losses weren’t as bad as some other recent drops, such as one in December when the Fed indicated fewer rate cuts may arrive in 2025 than expected.But much of Wall Street had been hoping Trump’s talk of tariffs through the presidential campaign was just that, talk, and an opening point for negotiations with U.S. trading partners. Now that Trump has followed through, the fear is about how much retaliation will occur in what could be an escalating trade war that damages economies worldwide, including the United States.“The uncertainty at this stage is tremendous – not only of how these eventual negotiations will play out, but worries about how this is only the tip of the iceberg and more tariffs are on the horizon,” said Yung-Yu Ma, chief investment officer at BMO Wealth Management.Traders on Wall Street are paring expectations for how many cuts to interest rates the Federal Reserve may deliver this year, if any. Lower interest rates can encourage U.S. employers to hire more workers, while also goo
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