Wall St falls as Trump tariff threats spark uncertainty

US stocks have fallen, notching a weekly loss, after President Donald Trump recommended 50 per cent tariffs on European goods, reopening a new front in global trade tensions and unleashing a fresh wave of market uncertainty.

All three main Wall Street indexes pared early losses but each still ended lower and shed more than 2.0 per cent for the week.

Technology, communication services and consumer discretionary stocks were the biggest losers of the S&P 500's 11 sub-sectors.

Utilities, consumer staples and energy stocks gained.

Apple touched a two-week low and finished down 3.0 per cent after Trump warned the iPhone-maker it could face potential 25 per cent tariffs on phones sold to US customers but not manufactured in the country.

Treasury yields eased from multi-month highs, falling 4.4 basis points to 4.509 per cent for the benchmark US 10-year note.

"If I were to put a headline on today's story, it would be 'Here We Go Again!'," said James St Aubin, chief investment officer at Ocean Park Asset Management in Santa Monica, California.

"This is Trump turning on the temperature on the tariff conversation with the EU and Apple. The markets were hoping that the worst was behind us when it comes to the tariff rhetoric. But in reality, there's still some smoldering embers when it comes to the tariff talk," St Aubin added.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 256.02 points, or 0.61 per cent, to 41,603.07, the S&P 500 lost 39.19 points, or 0.67 per cent, to 5,802.82 and the Nasdaq Composite lost 188.53 points, or 1.00 per cent, to 18,737.21.

For the week, the Dow lost 2.47 per cent, the S&P 500 fell 2.61 per cent, and the Nasdaq shed 2.48 per cent.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Trump did not believe the EU's trade offers were of sufficient quality.

He also said he hoped the threat of fresh tariffs would "light a fire under the EU" in negotiations.

Most megacap and growth stocks fell including Amazon, Nvidia and Meta Platforms - which all lost more than 1.0 per cent.

Tesla ended down 0.5 per cent.

The CBOE Volatility Index, Wall Street's "fear gauge," hit a more than two-week high and finished up 10 per cent.

Semiconductor stocks dropped 1.5 per cent.

Deckers Outdoor slumped nearly 20 per cent after the maker of UGG boots forecast first-quarter net sales below estimates and said it would not provide annual targets due to tariff-led macroeconomic uncertainty.

Sportswear maker Nike dropped 2.1 per cent.

Volume on US exchanges was 17.67 billion shares compared with the 17.73 billion average for the full session over the last 20 trading days.