Wall Street plunges bracing for Trump tariffs on China

By Ovunc Kutlu

NEW YORK (AA) - Three major indexes in the U.S. sharply fell on Thursday before President Donald Trump announced tariffs on China that could potentially trigger a trade war between the two countries.

The Dow Jones was down 350 points, losing 1.4 percent and trading at 24,330 points around 12:40 p.m. EST (1440GMT), while the S&P lost 33 points, or 1.2 percent, to 2,677 points.

The Nasdaq decreased 94 points, or 1.3 percent, to 7,250 points.

The CBOE Volatility Index with a ticker symbol VIX, which measures the market's volatility expectation in the S&P 500, was up 27 percent at one points to 22.69.

Trump is expected to announce imposing tariffs of $50 billion on Chinese goods and limiting the country to invest in U.S. technology sector.