U.S. stocks are falling in a manic Monday after President Donald Trump doubled down on his tariffs, despite seeing how much financial markets would love to see him do the opposite.
The S&P 500 was down 1.4% in midday trading, coming off its worst week since COVID began crashing the global economy in March 2020. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 744 points, or 1.9%, as of noon Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 1.1% lower.
Countries are scrambling to figure out how to respond to the tariffs, with China and others retaliating quickly.
Trump’s tariff blitz fulfilled a key campaign promise as he acted without Congress to redraw the rules of the international trading system. It was a move decades in the making for Trump, who has long denounced foreign trade deals as unfair to the U.S.
The higher rates are set to be collected beginning Wednesday, ushering in a new era of economic uncertainty with no clear end in sight.
Here's the latest:
Wall Street could soon be in the claws of another bear market as the Trump administration’s tariff blitz fuels fears that the added taxes on imported goods from around the world will sink the global economy.
A bear market is a term used by Wall Street when an index such as the S&P 500 or the Dow Jones Industrial Average has fallen 20% or more from a recent high for a sustained period of time.
The last bear market happened from Jan. 3 to Oct. 12 in 2022. But this decline feels more like the sudden, turbulent bear market of 2020, when the benchmark S&P 500 index tumbled 34% in a one-month period, the shortest bear market ever.
The S&P 500, Wall Street’s main barometer of health, was down 1.2% in Monday afternoon trading. It’s now 18.4% below the all-time high it set on Feb. 19.
The Dow industrials fell 1.8%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite, which already was in a bear market, dropped 0.9%.
▶Read more about the possible shift to a bear market
U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer discussed U.S. tariffs with his Singapore counterpart and they agreed there can be no winners in a trade war, his office said.
Starmer updated Singapore Prime Minister Lawrence Wong on his calls with other leaders over the weekend and both agreed to work to maintain global economic stability, according to a readout of the call.
The two agreed to strengthen collaboration through bilateral agreements and trading blocs such as the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership.
“On the wider bilateral relationship, the leaders committed to further collaboration on areas including technology, security and defense in the 60th year of bilateral relations,” Starmer’s office said.
Apple tumbled again on Monday after President Donald Trump threatened more tariffs against China.
China is the iPhone maker’s second-biggest market and home to the vast majority of its production and assembly.
In afternoon trading, Apple fell 3.2%, to $182.34 per share. That follows a combined decline of more than 16% on Thursday and Friday. Its shares are down more than 25% this year.
Other notable decliners Monday included Starbucks (-2.8%); Tesla (-1.6%); Levi Strauss (-1.7%); and Caterpillar (-2.4%).
Much like the major stock indexes, many companies whipsawed back-and-forth between gains and losses.
Nvidia was down as much as 7% early before rebounding to a 5% gain in the afternoon, for instance.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has spoken to Pakistan’s deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar, days after the U.S. President Donald Trump imposed 29% tariffs on exports to his country from Pakistan.
In a statement, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Monday that the two sides “discussed bilateral relations, regional security, and economic cooperation”.
The statement quoted Rubio as saying that the cooperation in economy and trade would be the hallmark of future relations between the two countries.
The latest development came hours after the Pakistan Stock Exchange fell rapidly, with Islamabad facing 29% tariffs from the U.S.
Beijing has issued several strongly-worded rebukes to Trump’s tariffs, including one entirely in the words of late-President Ronald Reagan.
“High tariffs inevitably lead to retaliation by foreign countries and the triggering of fierce trade wars,” the Republican president said in a video clip dated 1987, as posted on the X social media site Monday by the Chinese Embassy in the U.S. The embassy wrote that the decades-old speech “finds new relevance in 2025.”
“The result is more and more tariffs, higher and higher trader barriers, and less and less competition,” Reagan said in the speech, in which he warned of the worst from tariff wars: markets should collapse, businesses shut down, and millions of people lose jobs.
Experts say Beijing is unlikely to back down, after President Trump threatened to raise tariffs on China if Beijing does not withdraw its retaliatory tariffs.
“At this point, it is extremely unlikely for China to back down,” said Yun Sun, director of the China program at the Washington-based think tank Stimson Center, adding any leadership summit between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping “doesn’t appear likely in the near future.”
“China is increasingly convinced that the tariff is not negotiable because Trump’s eventual goal is to bring manufacturing jobs back to the U.S.,” Sun said.
Craig Singleton, senior China fellow at another Washington-based think tank Foundation for Defense of Democracies, called Trump’s threat from today “a blunt ultimatum to Beijing that sharply raises the takes in the U.S.-China tariff war.” He said Beijing’s rigid system and fear of looking weak prevent Xi from opening back channels with the Trump administration that could offer relief.
“This is not a contest of endurance so much as a collision course, where neither side intends to swerve,” Singleton said. “In other words, Trump and Xi are locked into escalation-as-strategy, and the risk now is a slow-motion spiral with no clear ceiling.”
The huge swings rocking Wall Street and the global economy may feel far from normal. But, for investing at least, drops of this size have happened throughout history.
Any kind of uncertainty around the economy will give Wall Street pause, but the trade war is making it more difficult for companies, households and others to feel confident enough to invest, spend and make long-term plans.
Anytime an investor sees they’re losing money, it feels bad. This recent run feels particularly unnerving because of how incredibly calm the market had previously been. The S&P 500 is coming off a second straight year where it shot up by more than 20%.
Selling may offer some feeling of relief. But it also locks in losses and prevents the chance of making the money back over time. Historically, the S&P 500 has come back from every one of its downturns to eventually make investors whole again. That includes after the Great Depression, the dot-com bust and the 2020 COVID crash.
▶Read more about what experts advise you do with your money in the stock market
European markets continued their recent descent Monday, logging a third straight day of major losses.
Germany’s DAX index, which briefly fell more than 10% at the open on the Frankfurt exchange, recovered some ground and closed down 4.1%. In Paris, the CAC 40 shed 4.8%, while Britain’s FTSE 100 tumbled 4.4%.
Prior to last week, most indexes in Europe had enjoyed a resurgence after underperforming U.S. markets last year.
The EUs executive commission — which handles trade issues for the 27-country bloc — is set to impose tariffs on jeans, whiskey and motorcycles Wednesday in response to Trump’s increase in steel and aluminum tariffs.
EU commissioners haven’t cemented a response to Trump’s “reciprocal” tariff of 20% on European goods and a 25% tariff imposed on autos.
Wall Street is increasingly betting that the Federal Reserve will cut its main interest rate at least four times this year.
That expectation has increased since the White House unleashed its sweeping tariffs on imported goods.
As of Monday, traders are betting on a 61.6% chance that the Fed will leave its rate unchanged at its next meeting of policymakers in May, according to data from CME Group. That’d down from 63.1% a month ago.
However, traders’ odds of rate cut announcements at Fed meetings in June, July, September and December are all up versus a month ago.
The Fed has been holding interest rates steady this year, after cutting them sharply through the end of last year.
The price of copper fell nearly 4% Monday following sharp drops late last week. Copper prices were up as much as 30% for the year as of late March and nearly all of those gains have been erased.
Copper prices had hit record levels because of growing demand amid developments for artificial intelligence technology and a global shift to cleaner energy. A prolonged trade war threatens economies around the world. That makes investments in technology and energy infrastructure more difficult.
Much of the world’s technology wouldn’t work without copper. It goes into cords for electrical devices, transmission lines, batteries, LED lights and other electronics.
The average price for a gallon of gas is up for the third straight week in the U.S., but that’s likely to reverse course soon with oil prices in rapid retreat.
The average price for a gallon of gas hit $3.21 this week, up more than 10 cents, according to GasBuddy. That’s still more than 35 cents lower that last year at this time.
Oil prices on Monday briefly dipped below $60 for the first time since 2021 as a global trade war escalates.
Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, said that if tariffs aren’t scaled back soon, the national average could fall below $3 per gallon in the coming weeks.
Wall Street’s big swings are being led by the technology sector, which has an outsized impact on the broader market.
The sector is full of companies with pricey stock valuations, such as Nvidia, which tend to push and pull the market with greater force than less valuable stocks. Their heft means a big shift either way for a just handful of companies can sink or lift the S&P 500.
Technology companies, including chipmakers, have seen their values skyrocket over hopes for artificial intelligence advancements. Higher costs for chips and other technologies pose a risk to that development and the earnings growth prospects for companies like Nvidia, Apple and Microsoft.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Monday said President Trump’s tariffs were a “huge challenge” for the U.K. and could have “profound” consequences for the global economy.
“But this moment has also made something very clear — that this is not a passing phase,” he said. “And just as we’ve seen with our national security, particularly over recent months in relation to the war in Ukraine, now with our commerce and trade, this is … a completely new world, an era where old assumptions, which we’ve long taken for granted, simply don’t apply any longer.”
Speaking to workers at a plant in the West Midlands that makes Jaguar and Land Rover vehicles for the export market, Starmer said his government would continue to try to negotiate a trade deal with the United States while championing free trade around the world.
Jaguar Land Rover on Saturday announced that it was pausing shipments to the U.S. for the month of April as it works out how to respond to the 25% tax on imported cars that took effect last week.
Starmer announced some help for the British car industry, providing additional flexibility in meeting the government’s 2030 deadline for phasing out gasoline- and diesel-power cars, extending the deadline for hybrids to 2035 and offering tax breaks for buyers of electric vehicles.
Oil prices are falling Monday, extending their slide from last week, as investors anticipate that a trade war will chill global economic growth.
The price of benchmark U.S. crude oil is down 1.1% to $61.32 a barrel. Earlier in the day, it briefly dipped below $60 a barrel for the first time since 2021.
U.S. crude is down 14.2% so far this month.
Brent crude, the international standard, is down 1% to $64.88 a barrel.
After holding relatively stable during last week’s global market turmoil, cryptocurrencies have joined the sell-off.
Bitcoin, the world’s most popular cryptocurrency dipped below $75,000 Monday morning before seeing a slight rebound.
Bitcoin’s prices haven’t been this low since just after President Donald Trump’s Election Day victory last year launched a bull run in crypto prices.
Bitcoin’s backers say it is a type of digital gold that can act as a hedge against volatility. But Garrick Hileman, an independent cryptocurrency analyst, said bitcoin’s price slide shows that thesis still hasn’t proven to be true.
“It’s just not there today,” he said. “(Bitcoin) trades like a risky tech stock.”
Other major digital assets, like ether, XRP and solana, saw even bigger one-day percentage drops on Monday morning.
Treasury yields are mixed in Monday morning trading on the bond market after briefly rallying in the early going.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.09% from 4.01% late Friday. It had fallen as low as 3.88% overnight.
The yield, which influences interest rates on mortgages and other consumer loans, was nearing 4.8% in mid-January.
The two-year yield, which closely tracks expectations for action by the Federal Reserve, was steady at 3.68%.
The account, @RapidResponse47, weighed in shortly after the market spiked, then dropped again.
The stock market briefly spiked on a report that Kevin Hassett, a top White House economic adviser, said the president was considering a 90-day pause on tariffs.
The supposed remark from Hassett circulated on social media, but no one could pinpoint where it came from even as the market flashed from red to green.
Hassett had spoken to Fox News earlier in the morning, when he was asked about a potential pause. However, he was noncommittal.
“I think the president is going to decide what the president is going to decide,” he said.
The episode showed that traders were operating on a hair trigger and eager for any sign of encouraging news for the market.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average briefly erased a morning loss of 1,700 points, shot up more than 800 points, then went back to a loss of 629 points.
The S&P 500 likewise made sudden up-and-down lurching movements and was down 0.7% in the first hour of trading. The Nasdaq composite was up 0.2% That followed sharp drops around the world as worries rise about whether Trump’s trade war will torpedo the global economy.
Wedbush analyst Dan Ives says Elon Musk’s association with President Trump and his tariffs will turn off potential Tesla buyers in China, the company’s second largest market. Ives writes that Musk’s embrace of right-wing politics is destroying demand for his electric vehicles in the U.S. and Europe, too.
“This could be a brutal year ahead if Musk does not exit stage left or take a step back on DOGE in the coming month,” Ives writes, referring to the Tesla CEO’s leadership of the government cost-cutting group. “With major protests erupting globally at Tesla dealerships, Tesla cars being keyed, and a full brand crisis tornado turning into a life of its own, this has cast a dark black cloud over Tesla’s stock.”
Even before Trump’s tariffs, Tesla stock had plunged more than 40% from its mid-December high.
Ives’ new price target of $315 still assumes big gains. Tesla was trading Monday morning at $229, down more than 4%.
Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said he spoke on the telephone with Trump on Monday night and told him he is “strongly concerned” that U.S. tariffs would discourage investment from Japan, which has been the world’s biggest investor in the United States in the past five years.
Ishiba said he urged Trump to seek a more mutually beneficial bilateral cooperation, and that Japan will keep negotiating to get the U.S. government reconsider the measures.
The two leaders reaffirmed their efforts to resolve the issue, and agreed to appoint a team of representatives on each side for further negotiations.
Ishiba said his government will hold a first ministerial taskforce meeting to tackle what he called “a national crisis.”
The prime minister told a parliamentary session earlier Monday that he doesn’t think the problem can be resolved unless Japan makes a counter proposal and that Japan needs to propose how the two countries can make a new relationship as a package. Ishiba, however, said he is not considering a retaliatory measure because it only makes things worse.
Ishiba said the government will do everything it can to help the industries affected, especially small and medium sized business owners.
Wall Street is sinking again, following other global markets, as worries deepen about whether Trump’s trade war will torpedo the global economy.
The S&P 500 fell 3.8% in early trading Monday, coming off its worst week since COVID began crashing the global economy in March 2020.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 1,200 points, and the Nasdaq composite was 4% lower.
European markets saw losses of 4% or more. In Asia, stocks in Hong Kong plunged 13.2% for their worst day since 1997. Japan’s Nikkei index tumbled nearly 8%.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen says the European Union is looking to do more business elsewhere in the world as President Trump’s tariffs hit international trade.
She said Monday that the EU is also is setting up a taskforce to monitor any dumping on its markets that might happen as trade patterns change.
“We will focus like a laser beam on the 83% of global trade that is beyond the United States. Vast opportunities,” von der Leyen said. After deals already done with Mexico and Switzerland, she said, “we’re working on India, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and many others.”
Von der Leyen says the taskforce will help to monitor any unexpected surges in imports and “protect ourselves against indirect effects through trade diversion.”
The European Commission negotiates trade deals and disputes on behalf of the 27 EU member countries.
Von der Leyen insists the EU still wants a deal with the Trump administration, but that “we are preparing a potential list for retaliation, and other measures for retaliation, if this is necessary.”
JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon says the Trump administration’s trade policies will likely result in higher prices for both imported and domestic goods and services, weighing on an already slowing U.S. economy.
In his annual letter to shareholders, released Monday, Dimon said the U.S. economy already faced a number of challenges: sticky inflation, geopolitical tensions, Federal Reserve policy including still-high interest rates and high fiscal deficits. Dimon also said that many stocks in the market have been priced too high.
The outspoken and influential CEO often comments on both domestic and international issues.
“Whether or not the menu of tariffs causes a recession remains in question, but it will slow down growth,” Dimon wrote, while also saying “I still have an abiding faith in America.”
The financial firm said a recession has become more likely even if Trump retreats from his trade policies.
Goldman Sachs also reduced its expectations for economic growth “following a sharp tightening in financial conditions, foreign consumer boycotts, and a continued spike in policy uncertainty that is likely to depress capital spending by more than we had previously assumed.”
But even meeting those expectations “would now require a large reduction in the tariffs scheduled to take effect on April 9.”
The dispute over tariffs has caused some fracturing within Trump’s political coalition.
Hedge fund manager Bill Ackman said the president was “launching a global economic war against the whole world at once” and urged him to “call a time out.”
“We are heading for a self-induced, economic nuclear winter,” he wrote on X on Sunday.
Top White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett told Fox News on Monday morning that Ackman should “ease off the rhetoric a little bit.”
Hassett said critics were exaggerating the impact of trade disputes and talk of an “economic nuclear winter” was “completely irresponsible rhetoric.”
Hong Kong Financial Secretary Paul Chan says the current volatility in the market does not warrant any drastic measures to be taken, vowing the city will remain a free port.
After the city’s stock market slumped 13.2% on Monday, Chan told reporters that it was functioning in an orderly manner, with substantial selling and buying interests. But the U.S. tariffs will inevitably cause market fluctuations and retaliatory measures and interest rate policy from other countries will trigger more volatile capital flows.
He blasted the latest U.S. tariffs as “bullying and unreasonable,” saying they have disrupted global supply chains and severely impacted the global economic recovery process.
Hong Kong, a former British colony which returned to China in 1997, enjoys semiautonomy that allows its policies and economic system to be different from mainland China’s.
Germany has reported a large increase in exports to the United States in February, ahead of U.S. President Donald Trump’s announcement of sweeping tariffs.
Germany has Europe’s biggest economy and is a leading exporter. Last year, the United States was its biggest single trading partner for the first time in nearly a decade, displacing China.
The Federal Statistical Office said Monday that Germany’s exports to the U.S. were up 8.5% in February compared with the previous month, at 14.2 billion euros ($15.6 billion). German exports to the entire world, including other EU nations, were up 1.8% in the same period at 131.6 billion euros.
The head of Germany’s exporters association, the BGA, said the February increase “must not deceive us” as the rise in exports to the U.S. was due to “anticipatory effects.”
Dirk Jandura said in a statement that “U.S. firms bunkered and German firms moved deliveries forward.”
He added that “Germany and the EU must quickly find their role in the new world order” and “approach the global South with pragmatic offers.”
Jandura argued that “the sweeping U.S. blow offers a unique opportunity to position Europe as a reliable and trustworthy partner.”
Germany’s economy minister says the premise of U.S. President Donald Trump’s wide-ranging tariffs is “nonsense,” and he is arguing that Europe is in a strong position.
Robert Habeck, who is also vice chancellor in Germany’s outgoing government, said as he arrived at a meeting of European Union trade ministers in Luxembourg Monday that he and his colleagues must act “calmly, prudently but also clearly and with determination.”
He said that means “being clear that we are in a strong position — America is in a position of weakness.” He argued that “we don’t have time pressure now,” but the U.S. does.
Habeck said it’s important for the EU to stick together, arguing that attempts by individual countries to win exemptions haven’t worked in the past. He stressed the importance of trade agreements and contacts with other regions of the world, such as South America, Asia and the Pacific.
The German minister said of Trump’s tariffs that “even the basis of the calculation is nonsense: The assumption that a trade budget surplus or deficit is a problem in itself is a wrong estimation.”
Indonesia says it won’t retaliate against Trump’s 32% tariff but will pursue diplomacy and negotiations to seek mutually beneficial solutions.
Indonesia, which had an $18 billion trade surplus with the U.S. last year, will gather input from business leaders to create a strategy for addressing the tariffs and find ways to reduce the deficit, Coordinating Economic Affairs Minister Airlangga Hartarto said Monday.
“We will increase the volume of purchases so that the $18 billion trade deficit can be reduced,” Hartarto said.
China on Monday accused the United States of unilateralism, protectionism and economic bullying with tariffs.
“Putting ‘America First’ over international rules is a typical act of unilateralism, protectionism and economic bullying,” Foreign Affairs spokesperson Lin Jian told reporters.
Last week, Trump put an additional 34% tariff on Chinese goods, on top of two rounds of 10% tariffs already declared in February and March, which Trump said was due to Beijing’s role in the fentanyl crisis. China and other governments retaliated quickly. China announced its own 34% tariff rate on U.S. goods.
Lin said the new tariffs harmed the stability of global production and supply chains and seriously impacted the world’s economic recovery.
“Pressure and threats are not the way to deal with China. China will firmly safeguard its legitimate rights and interests,” Lin added.
European shares dropped in early trading, with Germany’s DAX falling 6.5% to 19,311.29. In Paris, the CAC 40 shed 5.7% to 6,861.27, while Britain’s FTSE 100 lost 4.5% to 7,694.00.
South Korea’s top trade negotiator will visit Washington this week to express Seoul’s concerns over the Trump administration’s increased tariffs and discuss ways to mitigate their negative impact on South Korean businesses.
South Korea’s Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said Monday that its minister of trade, Inkyo Cheong, plans to meet with various U.S. officials, including U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer.
The ministry says Cheong aims to gather detailed information on the Trump administration’s trade policies and engage in discussions to reduce the 25% tariffs placed on South Korean products.
Currency traders work near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), top left, and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won, top center, at the foreign exchange dealing room of the KEB Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, April 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
Shipping containers are stacked at Port Botany in Sydney, Australia, Monday, April 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)
A man walks on a pedestrian bridge as tall buildings are seen in the background at the main business district in Jakarta, Indonesia, Monday, April 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Tatan Syuflana)
An investor takes a picture with a cell phone of indexes and benchmark 100 index at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSE), in Karachi, Pakistan, Monday, April 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Fareed Khan)
Emiratis are seen in the Dubai Financial Market in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Monday, April 7, 2025. (AP Photos/Fatima Shbair)
A man sits on a wheelchair and watches a live screen outside Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) building in Mumbai, India, Monday, April 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Rajanish Kakade)
While a stock exchange trader sits in front of his monitors on the trading floor of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, Germany, the display board with the Dax curve shows a value of less than 20,000 points. (Arne Dedert/dpa via AP)
Shipping containers are stored at Bensenville intermodal terminal in Franklin Park, Ill., Sunday, April 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)
Currency traders work near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), top left, and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won, top center, at the foreign exchange dealing room of the KEB Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, April 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
