Wall St selloff sparked by tariff onslaught, weak payrolls

Source: Reuters

Wall Street's main indexes led a global selloff on Friday as new U.S. tariffs on dozens of trading partners weighed on sentiment, while a weaker-than-expected payrolls report added to risk aversion.

Just hours before the tariff deadline on Friday, President Donald Trump signed an executive order imposing duties on U.S. imports from countries including Canada, Brazil, India and Taiwan, even as countries scrambled to seek ways to strike better deals.

Data showed U.S. job growth slowed more than expected in July while the prior month's report was revised sharply lower, pointing to a sharp moderation in the labor market.

"Everybody's quite shocked at how large the downward revisions were for both May and June. The upside is that the unemployment rate did not spike meaningfully," said Kevin Gordon, senior investment strategist at Charles Schwab.

Read more: https://www.reuters.com/business/wall-st-selloff-sparked-by-tariff-onslaught-weak-payrolls-2025-08-01/