The tech-rich Nasdaq finished at 16,307, down 3.1 percent.
The Dow Jones dropped 1.7 percent to 39,669, while the S&P 500 shed 2.2 percent to 5,275.
US equities opened lower, shrugging off solid retail sales data. But the market dropped much more after Fed Chair Jerome Powell warned that Trump’s tariffs could put the Federal Reserve in the unenviable position of having to choose between tackling inflation and unemployment.
Powell said that while the Fed’s employment and inflation goals were largely in balance at this point, policymakers could find themselves in the “challenging scenario” depending on how things evolve.
Powell’s comments “sparked stagflation concerns,” said Jack Ablin of Cresset Capital.
Powell “took what was a moderately down day into a pretty dramatic slide,” Ablin added.
The remarks come as Trump’s wide-ranging trade agenda continues to dominate discussion in business and financial circles.
Last week Trump backed off his most onerous “reciprocal” tariffs for every country except China, while maintaining a range of other levies, including on car imports.
There has been little sign of rapprochement between Washington and Beijing, which has responded with increased levies of its own.
Nvidia ended down around seven percent after earlier slumping more than 10 percent. The chip company disclosed in a securities filing that it expects a US$5.5 billion hit connected to export licences for technology that the US government determined could be used for a Chinese supercomputer.
Advanced Micro Devices, which estimated one-time charges of up to US$800 million, fell 7.4 percent. (AFP)
