U.S. stocks end mixed after Trump announcement

NEW YORK, March 2 (Xinhua) -- U.S. stocks pared early losses to close mixed on Friday, as investors continued to digest President Donald Trump's announcement to impose steep tariffs on steel and aluminum imports.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 70.92 points, or 0.29 percent, to 24,538.06. The S&P 500 increased 13.58 points, or 0.51 percent, to 2,691.25. The Nasdaq Composite Index was up 77.31 points, or 1.08 percent, to 7,257.87.

The United States is set to impose 25 percent of tariff on steel imports products and 10 percent on aluminum as early as next week, Trump said Thursday after a meeting with business executives at the White House.

U.S. stocks tumbled for a third straight session on Thursday after the announcement, with all three major indices dropping more than one percent.

Business Roundtable, an association of chief executive officers of America's leading companies, said it strongly disagreed with Trump's announcement because it would hurt the U.S. economy and American companies, workers and consumers by raising prices which would lead to foreign retaliation against U.S. exporters.

On the economic front, the final reading of U.S. Consumer Sentiment Index came in at 99.7 in February, generally in line with market estimates, according to a survey released by the University of Michigan on Friday.

For Chinese companies listed in the United States, shares of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba fell 1.29 percent to settle at 179.76 U.S. dollars apiece, while shares of another Chinese technology company Baidu increased 0.34 percent to close at 250.60 dollars per share.

For the week, all three major indices suffered big losses, with the Dow, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq tumbling 3.0 percent, 2.0 percent and 1.1 percent, respectively. Enditem