NEW YORK – Stock markets worldwide are careening even lower after China matched President Donald Trump’s big raise in tariffs in an escalating trade war. The S&P 500 dropped 2.7% early Friday, coming off its worst day since COVID wrecked the global economy in 2020. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 1,000 points, and the Nasdaq composite tumbled 3%. Not even a better-than-expected report on the U.S. job market was enough to stop the slide. European stocks saw some of the day’s biggest losses, and the price of crude oil tumbled to its lowest level since 2021 on worries about how a trade war could cause a recession. China announced early Friday that it will impose a 34% tariff on imports of all U.S. products beginning April 10, part of a flurry of retaliatory measures following Trump’s “Liberation Day” slate of double-digit tariffs. The new tariff matches the rate of the U.S. “reciprocal” tariff of 34% on Chinese exports Trump ordered this week. The U.S. exports an array of goods to China, including machinery, soy, corn and aerospace products. Shares in companies that stand to suffer from China’s tariffs include Deere & Co., which fell 4.7% in premarket; and Boeing, which slid 6%. Apple saw its shares decline 4.7%. The Commerce Ministry in Beijing also said that it will impose more export controls on rare earths, which are materials used in high-tech products such as computer chips and electric vehicle batteries. The Chinese government is also subjecting 27 additional U.S. companies to trade sanctions or export controls and filed a lawsuit with the World Trade Organization over the tariffs. Everything from crude oil to Big Tech stocks to the value of the U.S. dollar against other currencies has fallen since Trump’s tariff announcement Wednesday afternoon. Even gold, a traditional safe haven that recently hit record highs, pulled lower. Trump announced a minimum tariff of 10% on global imports, with the tax rate running much higher on products from certain countries like China and those from the European Union. Smaller, poorer countries in Asia were slapped with tariffs as high as 49%. Economists say the tariffs increases the risk of a potentially toxic mix of weakening economic growth and higher inflation. It’s “plausible” the tariffs altogether, which would rival levels unseen in more than a century, could knock down U.S. economic growth by 2 percentage points this year and raise inflation close to 5%, according to UBS. Later Friday the U.S. government offers up its March jobs report. Yields on Treasurys tumbled in part on rising expectations for coming cuts to rates, along with general fear about the health of the U.S. economy. The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 3.89% from 4.01% late Thursday and from roughly 4.80% in January. The last time it had fallen below 4% was in October. U.S. benchmark crude oil shed $5.32 to $61.63 a barrel, its lowest level since mid-2021. Brent crude, the international standard, was down $5.26 at $64.88 a barrel. Shares of Exxon Mobil slid 4.2% and Chevron fell an even 4%. Markets in Shanghai, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Indonesia were closed for holidays, limiting the scope of Friday’s sell-offs in Asia. Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 lost 2.8% to 33,780.58, while South Korea’s Kospi sank 0.9% to 2,465.42. The two U.S. allies said they were focused on negotiating lower tariffs with Trump’s administration. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 dropped 2.4%, closing at 7,667.80. In other trading early Friday, the U.S. dollar fell to 144.89 Japanese yen from 146.06. The yen is often used as a refuge in uncertain times, while Trump’s policies are meant in part to weaken the dollar to make goods made in the U.S. more price competitive overseas. The euro rose to $1.1074 from $1.1055. ...read more read less