US stocks sink again as more companies detail damage they're taking because of Trump's trade war

U.S. stocks closed lower Tuesday as quarterly results show more companies are scrubbing their forecasts for upcoming profits because of uncertainty created by President Donald Trump’s tariffs.

The S&P 500 fell 0.8%, its second drop after breaking a nine-day winning streak, its longest such run in more than 20 years. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 0.9%, and the Nasdaq composite finished 0.9% lower.

Palantir Technologies was one of the heaviest weights on the market as it sank 12%. The company, which offers an AI platform for customers, dropped even though it reported a profit for the latest quarter that met analysts’ expectations and raised its forecast for revenue over the full year.

AI-related companies have been finding it more difficult recently to convince investors to support their stocks after they’ve already shot so high. Palantir’s stock’s price remains near $110, when it was sitting at only $20 less than a year ago.

The return to Earth for AI stocks is happening as Trump’s tariffs change the economic landscape for other companies.

Clorox CEO Linda Rendle said her company saw changes in shopping behavior during the first three months of the year, for example, that led to lower revenue. The company reported both weaker revenue and profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. Clorox expects the slowdowns to continue in the current quarter, and its stock fell 2.4%.

Mattel, meanwhile, said it’s “pausing” its financial forecasts for 2025, in part because the “evolving U.S. tariff landscape” is making it difficult to predict how much U.S. shoppers will spend over the holiday season and the rest of this year.

The toymaker closed 2.8% higher after also reporting better results for the latest quarter than analysts feared.

Ford Motor said it’s expecting to take a $1.5 billion hit this year because of tariffs. The automaker also said it’s cancelling financial forecasts for the full year because of “tariff-related uncertainty.” The stock rose 2.7%.

They’re the latest companies to join a lengthening list that have yanked their forecasts for the year given uncertainty about what Trump’s on-again, off-again rollout of tariffs will do to the economy. The hope is that Trump will relent on some of his tariffs after reaching trade deals with other countries. Without them, many investors expect the economy to fall into a recession.

Regardless, all the will-he-won’t-he uncertainty around tariffs has already made U.S. households more pessimistic about the economy and could affect their long-term plans for purchases. That uncertainty has helped fuel a surge in imports ahead of potentially more severe tariffs ahead.

The U.S. trade deficit soared to a record $140.5 billion in March as consumers and businesses alike tried to get ahead of tariffs that went into effect in April and others that have been postponed until July. That follows another update from last week showing that the U.S. economy shrank at a 0.3% annual pace during the first quarter of the year because of a surge in imports.

Some companies say they’re already seeing impacts to their business from the uncertainty created by tariffs.

Food processing giant Archer Daniels Midland said that operating profit for agricultural services slumped 31% during its most recent quarter because of trade policy uncertainty. The stock rose 1.7%.

DoorDash fell 7.4% after reporting weaker revenue than analysts expected for the latest quarter, though it may have also offered a more encouraging snapshot of how U.S. households are doing. The company said order growth in its U.S. marketplace remained healthy and consistent with average growth over the last year.

All told, the S&P 500 fell 43.47 points to 5,606.91. The Dow dropped 389.83 points to 40,829, and the Nasdaq lost 154.58 points to close at 17,689.66.

Treasury yields closed broadly lower in the bond market. The yield on the 10-year Treasury slipped to 4.31% from 4.36% late Monday.

The Federal Reserve is beginning a two-day meeting, and it will announce its next move on interest rates Wednesday. Virtually no one expects it to do anything to its main rate, even though Trump has been advocating for cuts.

“While the possibility still exists for potential rate cuts later this year, the economic picture is complicated, and it’s too early to know if or when those cuts might happen,” said Michele Raneri, vice president and head of U.S. research and consulting at TransUnion.

Lower interest rates could help goose the economy, but they could also give inflation more fuel. And worries are already simmering that Trump’s tariffs could push inflation higher.

Markets were mixed across Europe and Asia. Indexes rose 1.1% in Shanghai and 0.7% in Hong Kong.

AP Business Writers Matt Ott and Elaine Kurtenbach contributed.

Trader Nial Pawa, left, and specialist Meric Greenbaum work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Tuesday, May 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

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People stand near an electronic board displaying stock prices at the Indonesia Stock Exchange in Jakarta, Indonesia, Tuesday, May 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Achmad Ibrahim)

People stand near electronic board displaying stock prices at the Indonesia Stock Exchange in Jakarta, Indonesia, Tuesday, May 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Achmad Ibrahim)

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RHO, Italy (AP) — No ice is colder and harder than speedskating ice. The precision it takes has meant that Olympic speedskaters have never competed for gold on a temporary indoor rink – until the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Games.

In the pursuit of maximum glide and minimum friction, Olympic officials brought on ice master Mark Messer, a veteran of six previous Olympic speedskating tracks and the ice technician in charge of the Olympic Oval in Calgary, Canada — one of the fastest tracks in the world with over 300 records.

Messer has been putting that experience to work one thin layer of ice at a time since the end of October at the new Speed Skating Stadium, built inside adjacent trade fair halls in the city of Rho just north of Milan.

“It’s one of the biggest challenges I’ve had in icemaking,’’ Messer said during an interview less than two weeks into the process.

If Goldilocks were a speedskater, hockey ice would be medium hard, for fast puck movement and sharp turns. Figure skating ice would be softer, allowing push off for jumps and so the ice doesn’t shatter on landing. Curling ice is the softest and warmest of all, for controlled sliding.

For speedskating ice to be just right, it must be hard, cold and clean. And very, very smooth.

“The blades are so sharp, that if there is some dirt, the blade will lose the edge,’’ Messer said, and the skater will lose speed.

Speedskater Enrico Fabris, who won two Olympic golds in Turin in 2006, has traded in his skates to be deputy sports manager at the speedskating venue in Rho. For him, perfect ice means the conditions are the same for all skaters — and then if it's fast ice, so much the better.

"It's more of a pleasure to skate on this ice,'' he said.

Messer’s first Olympics were in Calgary in 1988 — the first time speedskating was held indoors. “That gave us some advantages because we didn’t have to worry about the weather, wind blowing or rain,’’ he said. Now he is upping the challenge by becoming the first ice master to build a temporary rink for the Olympics.

Before Messer arrived in Italy, workers spent weeks setting up insulation to level the floor and then a network of pipes and rubber tubes that carry glycol — an antifreeze — that is brought down to minus 7 or minus 8 degrees Celsius (17.6 to 19.4 degrees Fahrenheit) to make the ice.

Water is run through a purification system — but it can’t be too pure, or the ice that forms will be too brittle. Just the right amount of impurities “holds the ice together,’’ Messer said.

The first layers of water are applied slowly, with a spray nozzle; after the ice reaches a few centimeters it is painted white — a full day’s work — and the stripes are added to make lanes.

“The first one takes about 45 minutes. And then as soon as it freezes, we go back and do it again, and again and again. So we do it hundreds of times,’’ Messer said.

As the ice gets thicker, and is more stable, workers apply subsequent layers of water with hoses. Messer attaches his hose to hockey sticks for easier spreading.

What must absolutely be avoided is dirt, dust or frost — all of which can cause friction for the skaters, slowing them down. The goal is that when the skaters push “they can go as far as possible with the least amount of effort,’’ Messer said.

The Zamboni ice resurfacing machine plays a key role in keeping the track clean, cutting off a layer and spraying water to make a new surface.

One challenge is gauging how quickly the water from the resurfacing machine freezes in the temporary rink.

Another is getting the ice to the right thickness so that the Zamboni, weighing in at six tons, doesn’t shift the insulation, rubber tubing or ice itself.

“When you drive that out, if there’s anything moving it will move. We don’t want that,’’ Messer said.

The rink got its first big test on Nov. 29-30 during a Junior World Cup event. In a permanent rink, test events are usually held a year before the Olympics, leaving more time for adjustments. “We have a very small window to learn,’’ Messer acknowledged.

Dutch speedskater Kayo Vos, who won the men’s neo-senior 1,000 meters, said the ice was a little soft — but Messer didn’t seem too concerned.

“We went very modest to start, now we can start to change the temperatures and try to make it faster and still maintain it as a safe ice,’’ he said.

Fine-tuning the air temperature and humidity and ice temperature must be done methodically — taking into account that there will be 6,000 spectators in the venue for each event. The next real test will be on Jan. 31, when the Olympians take to the ice for their first training session.

“Eighty percent of the work is done but the hardest part is the last 20 percent, where we have to try to find the values and the way of running the equipment so all the skaters get the same conditions and all the skaters get the best conditions,’’ Messer said.

AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics

Serpentines are set on the ice of the stadium where speed skating discipline of the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics will take place, in Rho, outskirt of Milan, Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

Ice Master Mark Messer poses in the stadium where speed skating discipline of the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics will take place, in Rho, outskirt of Milan, Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

Workers clean the ice surface during a peed skating Junior World Cup and Olympic test event, in Rho, near Milan, Italy, Saturday, Nov. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

Ice Master Mark Messer poses in the stadium where speed skating discipline of the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics will take place, in Rho, outskirt of Milan, Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

Ice Master Mark Messer poses in the stadium where speed skating discipline of the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics will take place, in Rho, outskirt of Milan, Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)