Wall Street is nervous about a trade war: Dow plunges 600 points

Source: CNNMoney

The Dow dropped more than 600 points, or more than 2%, on Thursday, underlining growing concerns among investors about looming tariffs on China.

The S&P 500 was down 2%, and the Nasdaq almost 2%.

"A global trade war, whether it's real or perceived, is what's weighing on the market," said Ian Winer, head of equities at Wedbush Securities. "There's this huge uncertainty now. If China decides to get tough on agriculture or anything else, that will really spook people."

Trump announced tariffs on about $50 billion worth of Chinese imports on Thursday afternoon. It's not clear which products will be hit, but the action is aimed at curbing China's troubling theft of US intellectual property.

Read more: http://money.cnn.com/2018/03/22/investing/dow-jones-trade-war-china/index.html

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It's being called various things by various people. 'Trade War', 'Tariff Plan', "not a trade war" ....

Free trade has been the mantra since WWII ... except for Nixon's 10% tariff an all imported goods:

https://thefaintofheart.wordpress.com/2016/04/15/remembering-1971-richard-nixon-and-tariffs-david-glasner-also-don-trump-is-a-creampuff/

For people of a certain generation, the brilliant, cunning, yet curiously tone-deaf and self-destructive Richard Nixon, U.S. President (1969-1974), is a bottomless well of interesting stories.

Remembered by a dwindling few is that Sunday of August 15, 1971 when Richard Nixon slapped on a 10% tariff, or import surcharge, on nearly all goods entering the United States. Hard as it is to believe today, Nixon also instituted nationwide wage-and-price controls, and took the U.S. dollar off of gold.