US stocks end mixed midweek as tariff concerns persist

​​​​​​​By Gokhan Ergocun

ISTANBUL (AA) - US stock markets ended mixed Wednesday amid ongoing concerns over President Donald Trump’s plans to implement tariffs.

Trump said his administration will soon announce a 25% tariff on imports from the European Union.

He said the US will go ahead with tariffs on Canada and Mexico, which will enter into force on April 2.

On the macroeconomic data side, the average interest rate for a 30-year mortgage in the US fell to 6.88% last week, its lowest level since mid-December last year, but applications decreased by 1.2%, official figures showed.

New home sales in the country fell by 10.5% to 657,000 units in January on a monthly basis, below market expectations.

The price of Bitcoin also continued to decline, with the cryptocurrency traded at $84,157, down 4.6% on a daily basis.

On the corporate side, Nvidia's shares ended the day with a gain of 3.7% and shares of Meta rose 2.5%.

Shares of Amazon, which introduced a new version of the AI-powered virtual assistant Alexa at an event, rose by 0.7%.

Meanwhile, shares of Tesla, whose market value fell below $1 trillion Tuesday, completed midweek with a loss of nearly 4%.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.43%, or 188.04 points, to end the day at 43,433.12.

The S&P 500 inched up 0.01%, or 0.81 points, to 5,956.06.

The Nasdaq Composite rose by 0.26%, or 48.88 points, to 19,075.26.

The VIX Index, also known as the “fear index," dropped 1.7% to 19.1.