why are stocks falling today

Stocks are falling today primarily due to U.S. President Trump's threat of a massive increase in tariffs on Chinese imports, which has escalated trade war fears and caused a sharp sell-off in major U.S. stock indexes. This tariff threat comes amid China's tightening of export controls on rare earth minerals, a key resource for tech companies, leading to significant declines in technology stocks such as AMD, Nvidia, Tesla, Apple, and Amazon. The market also faces additional uncertainty from ongoing weak consumer sentiment and concerns about a U.S. government shutdown, all contributing to today's broad market decline.