New York, Mar 3 (IANS): US stocks pared early losses to close mixed on Friday, as investors continued to digest President Donald Trump's announcement to impose steep tariffs on steel and aluminum imports.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 70.92 points, or 0.29 per cent, to 24,538.06, reports Xinhua.

The S&P 500 increased 13.58 points, or 0.51 per cent, to 2,691.25. The Nasdaq Composite Index was up 77.31 points, or 1.08 per cent, to 7,257.87.

The US is set to impose 25 per cent of tariff on steel imports products and 10 per cent on aluminum as early as next week, Trump said on Thursday after a meeting with business executives at the White House.

US stocks tumbled for a third straight session on Thursday after the announcement, with all three major indices dropping more than one percent.

Business Roundtable, an association of chief executive officers of America's leading companies, said it strongly disagreed with Trump's announcement because it would hurt the US economy and American companies, workers and consumers by raising prices which would lead to foreign retaliation against US exporters.

On the economic front, the final reading of US Consumer Sentiment Index came in at 99.7 in February, generally in line with market estimates, according to a survey released by the University of Michigan on Friday.

For Chinese companies listed in the US, shares of e-commerce giant Alibaba fell 1.29 per cent to settle at $179.76 apiece, while shares of another technology company Baidu increased 0.34 per cent to close at $250.60 per share.

For the week, all three major indices suffered big losses, with the Dow, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq tumbling 3.0 per cent, 2.0 per cent and 1.1 per cent, respectively.