The Big Story 

The major stock index closed Thursday 10 percent below a record high reached in February, hitting an infamous threshold on Wall Street.

© AP

The S&P closed with a loss of 1.4 percent, falling to just more than 5,521.52.

That level is roughly 10 percent below the key index’s most recent record high of 6,144.15, which was set Feb. 19.

Thursday marked yet another day of steep losses for the stock market amid mounting concerns over the state of the economy and the potential impact of President Trump’s trade agenda.

After a brief reprieve from a better-than-expected inflation report Wednesday, markets continued to sell off after Trump and the European Union exchanged new tariffs and threats.

• Trump earlier Thursday threatened to put a 200 percent tariff on wine, Champagne and other alcohol from if the EU did not revoke a new import tax on U.S. whisky.
• Trump’s 25 percent tariffs on steel and aluminum took effect Wednesday, leading the EU to retaliate with a two-step plan.
• The EU is set to allow expired tariffs on U.S. goods, which the bloc imposed during its last trade battle with Trump, to return April 1. The EU also plans to impose new tariffs on $28 billion in U.S. goods by mid-April.

Trump’s escalating trade wars with Europe, Canada and Mexico have shaken the confidence of business leaders and consumers alike, ramping up the pressure on the president and his party.

Read the full report at TheHill.com.

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Essential Reads 

Key business and economic news with implications this week and beyond:

Schumer says he will vote to advance GOP spending bill, lowering threat of shutdown

Congress poised to force $1B cut to local DC budget, surprising many lawmakers

Nearly half of Americans say economy worsening: Poll

Canada files WTO complaint over US steel, aluminum tariffs

Tax Watch 

Senate Finance Committee meets with White House on tax cuts

Welcome to Tax Watch, a new feature focused on the fight over tax reform and the push to extend the 2017 Trump tax cuts this year.

Senate Finance Committee Chair Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) touted the importance of making the Trump tax cuts permanent Tuesday ahead of a meeting between committee members and the White House.

“Permanence is our highest priority,” he said during an event Wednesday, writing on social media later about the “importance of competitive, permanent tax policy.”

The meeting with the White House comes as House and Senate Republicans still have a good deal of daylight between them on extending the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA). Sticking points include cuts to U.S. food assistance and health care programs and how much money Republicans are willing to add to the deficit.

“The most damaging way to finance TCJA extensions would be with spending cuts for programs like SNAP or Medicaid,” Josh Bivens, chief economist at the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning Washington think tank, wrote in a February analysis.

— Tobias Burns

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