Wall Street closes lower as political uncertainty dampens impact

The New York Stock Exchange closed this Monday on a downward trend, with the expected recovery, after Friday's sharp fall, being prevented by a retreat in some of the mega-caps in the technology sector.

The final results of the session indicate that the selective Dow Jones Industrial Average index advanced a scant 0.08%, while the technological Nasdaq lost 1.21% and the broad S&P500 fell 0.50%.

“There was no major change in attitude (among investors) compared to Friday, with concerns about the slight cooling of economic growth in the US in the first quarter, as well as about inflation, due to political uncertainty” caused by the White House, according to Angelo Kourkafas, from Edward Jones.

“Investors have adopted a wait-and-see approach, with stock market levels near all-time highs. But for them to continue rising, political uncertainty will likely begin to dissipate,” with tariffs on Canada and Mexico as the “first catalyst,” the analyst told AFP.

Donald Trump, today, during a joint press conference at the White House with French President Emmanuel Macron, stated that he would increase customs duties applied to US imports from those neighboring states “on the scheduled date”, that is, Saturday, March 1.

This statement, made shortly before the close of Wall Street, increased the losses of the Nasdaq and S&P500 and cut the Dow Jones of part of its gains.

But the stock market also suffered from the sharp declines of several mega-caps.

Shares in China's Alibaba fell more than 10% in New York after the group announced it wanted to invest 50 billion euros “over the next three years” in artificial intelligence (AI) and the cloud (dematerialized computing).

The announcement was made days after a meeting, considered auspicious, between its co-founder Jack Ma and Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Data analytics group Palantir lost more than 10%, its fourth straight session of losses, after it was announced that the Defense Department would review its budget.

In fact, the Pentagon reported today that it has ordered a review of its spending to redirect around $50 billion to programs more aligned with Trump's "priorities", after the publication of a Washington Post article mentioning significant budget cuts to the military.