US stock losses intensified on Wednesday as Bloomberg reported President Trump's auto tariff announcements could come as soon as Wednesday.

The benchmark S&P 500 ( ^GSPC ) was down 0.8%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average ( ^DJI ) fell about 0.1%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite ( ^IXIC ) led the losses, sliding around 1.6%. Tech leaders Nvidia ( NVDA ) and Tesla ( TSLA ) were both down about 5%.

Stocks are on shifting sands as markets respond to changes in tone from Trump on coming tariffs. The major gauges rallied after Trump indicated on Friday and then again on Monday that he might be "flexible" or offer countries "breaks" in reciprocal duties set to take effect on April 2 .

But Trump told Newsmax on Tuesday that he "doesn't want to have too many exceptions" to the levies — a potential swing back to the hard line seen earlier in March. Those threats directed at the EU and Canada fueled a sell-off that pushed the S&P 500 into correction territory .

Read more: The latest on Trump's tariffs

Meanwhile, the White House appears to be accelerating its plans for copper levies. Tariffs on copper imports could be coming within several weeks , months ahead of a deadline for implementing the measures, Bloomberg reported. Copper ( HG=F ) prices surged to a record on the heels of the news.

In corporates, GameStop ( GME ) stock jumped around 13% in early trading after the video game retailer's approval of a plan to buy bitcoi n ( BTC-USD ) with its cash holdings.

Orders for durable goods came in stronger than expected in February, data released Wednesday showed. The 0.9% rise topped expectations for a drop of 1% but undershot January's 3.3% reading.