At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.37% at 44,546.08, while the S&P 500 lost 0.01% to 6,114.63 and the Nasdaq Composite saw out the session 0.41% firmer at 20,026.77.
The Dow closed 165.35 points lower on Friday, taking a bite out of gains recorded in the previous session as traders digested January wholesale inflation numbers.
News that Trump had signed a memorandum laying out a plan to impose levies on goods from countries with duties on US products was in focus throughout the session on Friday.
“They charge us a tax or tariff and we charge them,” said Trump, who tasked Commerce Secretary nominee Howard Lutnick to head a study on the appropriate levies for each nation. “We want a level playing field,” he added”
Under the plan, the US will look at other countries’ non-tariff policies – including value-added taxes and other practices – that the office of the US trade representative deems to be “unfair”.
“America has helped many Countries throughout the years, at great financial cost. It is now time that these Countries remember this, and treat us fairly,” said Trump.
January retail sales figures also drew an amount of attention on Friday, revealing that Americans pulled back on their spending at the start of the year. According to the Department of Commerce, in seasonally adjusted terms, retail sales volumes shrank in January at a month-on-month clip of 0.9% to reach $723.9bn. Sales of motor vehicles and parts were down sharply, by 2.8% when compared with December, and in absolute terms, accounted for over half of the drop in retail sales volumes.
Elsewhere on the macro front, import prices increased 0.3% in January, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the largest one-month rise since April 2024, while export prices increased 1.3% for the largest monthly gain since May 2022.
Still on data, capacity utilisation rose to 77.8% in January, according to the Federal Reserve, up from 77.5% in December and slightly ahead of market expectations for a reading of 77.7%, while industrial production increased 2% year-on-year in January for the biggest rise since October 2022.
In the corporate space, cryptocurrency marketplace Coinbase and property rental platform operator Airbnb both traded higher after their Q4 earnings came in ahead of expectations, while GameStop surged after the video game retailer said it was mulling over whether or not it should begin investing in Bitcoin.
Drugmaker Moderna was also in focus after revealing it had recorded a wider-than-expected Q4 loss despite revenues coming in ahead of expectations.
