Stocks Sink, Then Recover After China Announces Tariffs

The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped more than 500 points early Wednesday after China announced plans to retaliate against the Trump administration's proposed tariffs—but the losses were erased by midday. Around 2:45 p.m., the Dow was up more than 100 points, and it finished ahead by 231 points. Investors are weighing "the possibility that this is simply a negotiating ploy on both sides," Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist at CFRA Research, told CNN Money. President Donald Trump tweeted Wednesday morning that the U.S. was “not in a trade war with China” and “that war was lost many years ago by the foolish, or incompetent, people who represented the U.S.”