why did market fall today

The market fell today mainly due to escalating trade tensions between the U.S. and China. President Trump announced plans for a "massive increase" in tariffs on Chinese imports and canceled a planned meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, which triggered worries about a renewed trade war. In retaliation, China imposed export controls on rare earth minerals crucial to tech and defense industries and implemented new port fees on American ships. This created fears of disrupted global trade, higher costs for companies, and negative impacts on corporate profits. Additionally, weak corporate earnings reports that fell short of expectations contributed to the decline, especially hitting technology stocks hard. Rising bond yields also pressured stocks by making fixed-income investments more attractive, causing investors to rebalance portfolios away from equities. These factors combined created a "perfect storm," leading to sharp drops in major indexes like the Dow Jones, S&P 500, and Nasdaq, which fell by around 1 to 2 percent. Technology, semiconductor, and AI-related companies were particularly affected, while rare earth stocks surged due to the supply chain concerns. Overall, the fall today was driven by heightened geopolitical risks, trade tensions, disappointing earnings, and bond yield rises that fueled investor caution and selling pressure across multiple sectors.