Tariffs Threaten Technicals as S&P Flirts With 100-Day Average

(Bloomberg) -- The stock market is flirting with a technical inflection point again.

The S&P 500 Index briefly broke below its 100-day moving average Thursday, sinking as much as 2 percent after President Donald Trump said the U.S. will impose harsh tariffs on steel and aluminum imports.

The announcement added fuel to a fire that's been smoldering since last month's selloff, as investors continue to worry about rising inflation and interest rates. That anxiety has brought the market close to collapsing through the line of defense the moving average represents.

“You've broken down below the halfway point, now you're toying below the initial high after the collapse, and you've gotten into all sorts of technical problems,” Jim Paulsen, chief investment strategist at Leuthold Weeden, said by phone. “Breaking some technical averages here is starting to scare people.”

The S&P 500 fell 1.1 percent to 2,684.02 as of 3:27 p.m. in New York, after going as low as 2,659.65. The index is down about 2.5 percent on the week.

Before February's correction, the gauge hadn't touched the 100-day barrier since last August. And while the market is recovering some of Thursday's losses late in the session, it still risks closing below the line for the third time in a month.

--With assistance from Sarah Ponczek

To contact the reporter on this story: Kailey Leinz in New York at kleinz1@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Jeremy Herron at jherron8@bloomberg.net, Andrew Dunn, Dave Liedtka

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