Traders work during the Alliance Laundry Holdings Inc. initial public offering (IPO) on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, US, on Thursday, Oct. 9, 2025.
Michael Nagle | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Stocks moved decidedly lower in a rapid move after President Donald Trump made some critical comments about China.
The Dow Jones Industrial average lost more than 270 points. The S&P 500 lost 0.8% and the Nasdaq Composite fell 1.2%.
Trump posted on Truth Social that China was “becoming very hostile, and sending letters to Countries throughout the world, that they want to impose export controls on each and every element of production having to do with rare earths.”
“I was to meet President Xi in two weeks, at APEC, in South Korea, but now there seems to be no reason to do so,” Trump added.
The U.S. government shutdown dragged into its 10th day on Friday, a day after the Senate failed for a seventh time to pass dueling stop-gap funding proposals that would have put an end to the stoppage. At this point, there have been no signs that Republicans and Democrats have made meaningful progress on negotiations.
With the stalemate continuing, investors are struggling to find catalysts due to a lack of economic data from the government. However, the latest data from the University of Michigan showed that both the U.S. economy and the consumer are holding up.
Also offering some sense of consumer demand, earnings reports on Thursday from companies like Delta Air Lines and PepsiCo were positive, even though they weren’t enough to sustain a rally in stocks that day.
Still, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq could eke out gains for the week of 0.5% and more than 1%, respectively. The 30-stock Dow, however, is pacing for a 0.5% drop.
Declines in the Dow would we steeper if not for Nvidia regaining some momentum this week. After CEO Jensen Huang told CNBC that computing demand has “gone up substantially” this year, the stock has regained some momentum. Shares have logged a 2.6% gain week to date.
“Markets are trying to balance a few things because we are navigating a little blind because of the government shutdown,” Fundstrat’s Tom Lee said Thursday on CNBC’s “Closing Bell.”
Earnings season is set to begin in earnest next week, with several banks such as Citigroup and JPMorgan slated to post their third-quarter results.