Before the opening bell, the S&P is down 1.7 percent, with the Dow and the Nasdaq over 2 percent lower. A loss of each percent in American indices means losing billions of dollars in value for corporations.
Even before the announcement, American stocks saw the worst start in April since the Great Depression. The S&P 500 is in a 10-percent correction from its record high in late January.
Comment: Indeed it has, with further details here:
Major US companies' stocks were down across the board with all 30 Dow components trading lower. About 450 of the S&P 500 components were down as well.
On the Nasdaq, major tech companies Apple and the FANG group - Facebook, Amazon, Netflix and Alphabet were down between one percent and four percent.
"It's tit-for-tat as China retaliates, sending the markets in a tailspin. Today's decline will likely accelerate the pace of testing the indices yearly lows in the coming days," said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at First Standard Financial in New York, as quoted by Reuters.
Comment: Unfortunately, years of destructive financial policy and systemic MASS corruption is likely to do little to help the 'long-term fundamentals' at this stage. We are, as many analysts are observing, 'running on empty'.