Investing.com -- Wall Street reacted with a mid-day sell-off to President-elect Donald Trump's latest Twitter, which threatened a huge tariff on Toyota Motor Co. for its proposal to build a new car manufacturing plant in Mexico.
The Dow closed at 19889.29, down by 42.87 points for the day, or 0.21%. The S&P 500 closed at 2269.00, down by 1.75 points, or 0.08%.The Nasdaq closed slightly higher, up by 11 points.
The Dow was at 19864.14, down 78.02 points, or 0.39%, at 1 p.m. Central. Toyota's shares on the Nasdaq were down 56 cents to $120.69, a decrease of 0.41%.
Trump said on social media that unless Toyota changed its plans, and made the new cars in the U.S., it would face a 35% tax at the Mexican/American border if it tried to import the cars into the U.S.
Toyota's shares dropped in afternoon trade on Thursday on the Nasdaq following the missive.
The threat about Toyota's planned new plant in Mexico is the latest industrial policy statement from Trump, who has already convinced Ford to keep a plant planned for Mexico in Michigan.
Earlier this week, Trump issued demand to General Motors (NYSE:GM) Corp. to produce its Chevy Cruze cars in the U.S.
Less than two days ago, Ford announced it was canceling its plans to build Mexican plant, but insisted Trump was not the main factor for the decision.
During the Reagan era in the 1980s, the White House used to secure "voluntary" trade restrictions with steelmakers from Japan. The negotiations, were not available in real-time on the Internet, however, making Trump's form of economic diplomacy and industrial policy an innovation.
In related news which impacted the market:
U.S. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), the failed GOP nominee for president in 2008, said the alleged Russian hacking of the public e-mail account of the chairman of the campaign of another failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, John Podesta, was an "act of war" and that the U.S. needed a "new cyber-security policy" to defend its interests.
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange earlier this week commented the hacking of Podesta's non-secured, public server on G-Mail was something a "14-year-old kid" could accomplish, not a sophisticated IT operation.
But, in testimony before Congress, James Clapper, the Director of National Intelligence for the U.S., an appointee of President Obama, said he was "resolute" in his belief that the hacking of Podesta was done by the Russians.