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 President 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.
Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said he held telephone talks on Monday with President Donald Trump 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.
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 Donald 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.”
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell is framed by a trader’s screens on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Wednesday, June 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
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.
Benches line the Cobre Panamá copper mine during a press tour of the mine in Donoso, Panama, Friday, March 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
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.
An electronic display shows financial information on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Monday, April 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
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.
“If China does not withdraw its 34% increase above their already long term trading abuses by tomorrow, April 8th, 2025, the United States will impose ADDITIONAL Tariffs on China of 50%, effective April 9th,” the president wrote on Truth Social. “Additionally, all talks with China concerning their requested meetings with us will be terminated!
Trump’s threat comes after China said it would retaliate against U.S. tariffs announced last week.
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.
FILE – A sign at a Sinclair gas station is seen next to an Arco gas station advertising gasoline prices, June 10, 2024, in Long Beach, Calif. (AP Photo/Ryan Sun, File)
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.
Traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Monday, April 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
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.
Shigeru Ishiba, member of House of Representatives of Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and one of candidates for LDP leadership election speaks during his press conference Friday, Sept. 11, 2020, in Tokyo. In response to Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s suggestion Japan should change its defense policy, Ishiba explained that Japan does not have a capability, and it would take a lot of time and cost to be able to acquire such a capability, and Japan would have to rely on the U.S. for surveillance. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
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.
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.
FILE – In this April 4, 2017 file photo, Jamie Dimon, Chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase, discusses his Annual Letter to Shareholders at the Chamber of Commerce of the United States of America in Washington. (Paul Morigi/AP Images for JPMorgan Chase)
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.”
In a Truth Social post Monday morning, the president showed no interest in changing course despite turmoil in global markets.
He said other countries had been “taking advantage of the Good OL’ USA” on international trade.
“Our past ‘leaders’ are to blame for allowing this, and so much else, to happen to our Country,” he wrote. “MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”
Trump criticized China for increasing its own tariffs and “not acknowledging my warning for abusing countries not to retaliate.”
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends his trial on corruption charges at the district court in Tel Aviv, Israel, Wednesday, March 12, 2025. (Yair Sagi/Pool Photo via AP)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will meet U.S. President Donald Trump in Washington Monday. Whether his visit succeeds in bringing down or eliminating Israel’s 17% tariff remains to be seen, but how it plays out could set the stage for how other world leaders try to address the new tariffs.
Netanyahu’s office has put the focus of his hastily organized Washington visit on the tariffs, while stressing that the two leaders will discuss major geopolitical issues including the war in Gaza, tensions with Iran, Israel-Turkey ties and the International Criminal Court.
In a preemptive move last week, Israel announced that it was removing all tariffs on goods from the U.S., mostly on imported food and agricultural products.
- Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 index lost nearly 8% shortly after the market opened and futures trading for the benchmark was briefly suspended. It closed down 7.8% at 31,136.58.
- Germany’s DAX index briefly fell more than 10% at the open on the Frankfurt exchange, but recovered some ground to move down 5.8% in morning trading.
- France’s CAC 40 shed 5.8% in morning trading.
- Britain’s FTSE 100 lost 4.9% in morning trading.
- Hong Kong’s Hang Seng dropped 13.2% to 19,828.30.
- Shanghei’s Composite index lost 7.3% to 3,096.58.
- Taiwan’s Taiex plummeted 9.7%.
- South Korea’s Kospi lost 5.6% to 2,328.20.
- Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 lost 4.2% to 7,343.30, recovering from a loss of more than 6%.
- India’s benchmark BSE Sensex and the Nifty 50 index both dropped about 5% after trading opened but then recovered slightly.
- Dubai’s Financial Market exchange fell 5% as it opened for the week.
- Abu Dhabi’s Securities Exchange fell 4%.
- Saudi Arabia’s Tadawul stock exchange, which opened Sunday, fell over 6% in trading. The giant of the exchange, Saudi Arabia’s state-owned oil company Aramco, fell over 5% on its own, wiping away billions in market capitalization for the world’s sixth-most-valuable company.
- Pakistan’s stock exchange suspended trading for an hour after a 5% drop in its main KSE-30 index.
President Donald Trump said Sunday that he won’t back down on his sweeping tariffs on imports from most of the world unless countries even out their trade with the U.S., digging in on his plans to implement the taxes that have sent financial markets reeling.
Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One late Sunday, President Donald Trump said he didn’t want global markets to fall, but also that he wasn’t concerned about the massive sell-off either, adding, “sometimes you have to take medicine to fix something.”
“I spoke to a lot of leaders, European, Asian, from all over the world,” Trump said. “They’re dying to make a deal. And I said, we’re not going to have deficits with your country. We’re not going to do that, because to me a deficit is a loss. We’re going to have surpluses or at worst, going to be breaking even.”
Global stock markets extended a severe plunge Monday, fueled by fears that U.S. tariffs would lead to a global economic slowdown. European and Asian shares saw dramatic losses, the leading U.S. index flirted with bear market territory in pre-market trading, and oil prices sagged.
The massive sell-off in riskier assets at the start of the trading week follows President Donald Trump’s announcement of sharply higher U.S. import taxes and retaliation from China that saw markets fall sharply Thursday and Friday.
▶ Read more on what’s happening with global markets
