Stock markets are selling off again, even after Wednesday’s massive rally

Wall Street and international markets are on the decline once again amid tariff turmoil following yesterday's late rally after President Donald Trump paused some tariffs.

U.S. stocks on Thursday are giving back a chunk of their historic gains from the day before as Wall Street weighs a global trade war that has cooled in temperature but is still threatening the economy.

The S&P 500 was down three per cent, a day after surging 9.5 per cent following President Donald Trump’s decision to pause many of his tariffs worldwide.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 981 points, or 2.4 per cent, as of 10:10 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 3.7 per cent lower.

The Toronto Stock Exchange was down nearly 2.5 per cent.

Even a better-than-expected report on inflation Thursday morning wasn’t enough to get U.S. stocks to add to their surges from the day before, including the S&P 500’s third-best since 1940.

Economists said the data wasn’t very useful because it offered a view only of the past, when inflation may rise in coming months because of tariffs.

A better-than-expected report on joblessness didn’t help much either, with Wall Street’s focus entirely on what’s to come.

“Trump blinks,” UBS strategist Bhanu Baweja wrote in a report about the president’s decision on tariffs, “but the damage isn’t all undone.”