Home Stock market today: Dow sinks 350 points, S&P 500 falls for third day as tariffs send stocks on roller coaster

Stock market today: Dow sinks 350 points, S&P 500 falls for third day as tariffs send stocks on roller coaster

· April 7, 2025 · 0 Comment
  • US stocks whipsawed on Monday between heavy losses and brief gains only to close out mixed as investors assessed the potential impact of an escalating trade war on the economy.
  • The S&P 500 (^GSPC) fell 0.2% while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) closed above the flatline. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) dropped around 0.9%, or almost 350 points. All three major averages erased steep losses mid-morning to temporarily trade in green territory before ultimately falling.
  • On Monday President Trump threatened China with an additional 50% tariff starting on April 9 if Beijing did not remove 34% levies on US imports. China announced those retaliatory measures last week after the president’s sweeping tariff plans were revealed.
  • The markets briefly moved on social media headlines which appeared to indicate Trump could pause the tariffs, but the White House quickly shot down the idea, calling it ‘fake news.’
  • Meanwhile White House trade advisor Peter Navarro wrote on Monday the Trump administration tariff policy is “not a negotiation.”
  • “The international trade system is broken — and Donald Trump’s reciprocal tariff doctrine will fix it,” Navarro wrote in a Financial Times op-ed published Monday afternoon.
  • Yahoo Finance’s Brian Sozzi writes:
  • Read more here.
  • The stock market has been reeling since Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariff announcement back on April 2.
  • But even before this shock announcement tipped the Nasdaq into a bear market and sent the S&P 500 down 10% in two trading days, stocks had struggled this year as the reality of Trump’s desire to impose tariffs on a wide range of partners and a wide range of goods was increasingly resolute.
  • In turn, investors had spent much of this year searching for the “Trump put,” or the level in the stock market that would prompt the administration to back off its tariffs plans.
  • The stock market, however, might not be the place to find a market that would prompt the administration to act.
  • “The lack of the Trump Put and disregard for stocks has further fueled the relentless selling,” JPMorgan strategists led by Dubravko Lakos-Bujas wrote in a note to clients on Monday.
  • “However, the Put may have shifted to the crypto market which so far has been relatively resilient.”
  • In their note, JPMorgan’s team cut their year-end price target for the S&P 500 to 5,200 from 6,500. The firm’s economics team last week became the first on Wall Street to forecast a US recession this year.
  • Administration officials, most prominently Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, have talked about Treasury yields as the key financial metric for the second Trump administration, and the idea from Trump’s first term in office that the stock market is a scorecard for his economic policies has been nowhere to be found this time around.
  • On Sunday, Trump told reporters when asked about the stock market sell-off that sometimes you need to take medicine to get better.
  • Back in early March, with investors bracing for Trump’s first round of tariff announcements, Bank of America strategist Michael Hartnett floated the idea of a “bro bubble” in stocks and saw the first “Trump put” for the S&P 500 coming at 5,783, or the level that stocks closed at the day of the election.
  • In afternoon trading on Monday, the S&P 500 was sitting closer to 5,075. Trump put come and gone.
  • But bitcoin appears to be acting more in the spirit of Hartnett’s call.
  • Early Monday, bitcoin traded below $75,000 for the first time since early November as bitcoin rallied after Trump’s election win. Stocks recovered some losses through the trading day, but bitcoin’s intraday bounce was more forceful, with the world’s largest cryptocurrency sitting nearly $78,600 in late afternoon trade.
  • Before Monday’s breakdown, bitcoin had only briefly broken below $80,000 in early March and spent most of the last month holding in the low $80,000s while the stock market slowly lost steam.
  • Trump’s creation of a crypto strategic reserve may help crypto markets find a bid during times of market turmoil.
  • But as an asset class, crypto is simply better suited to trading as a sentiment indicator than the stock market. Stocks — which represent fractional ownership positions in real companies — are pricing in the expected real-world impacts of companies across industries and geographies dealing with higher costs and more uncertainty.
  • There is a sentiment piece to the price of every stock, but the macro backdrop and fundamental complications facing any business as a result of dramatic policy shifts cannot be ignored.
  • Not so with cryptocurrency.
  • And while bitcoin has at many points this year traded in lockstep with the overall market — and tech stocks in particular — it has the luxury as an asset class of being able to truly, credibly, look past the earnings-level disruptions potentially posed by higher tariffs and instead reflect the collective id of an investor class trying to find firm footing.
  • On the day before Trump’s Nov. 5 election win, bitcoin was trading just below $70,000. Since then, bitcoin hasn’t really come close to that level. And until then, we may not see financial markets truly get a sense of where the Trump put lies.
  • A scary proposition for the stock market. And an emboldening one for Trump.
  • White House trade advisor Peter Navarro wrote on Monday the Trump administration tariff policy is “not a negotiation.”
  • “The international trade system is broken — and Donald Trump’s reciprocal tariff doctrine will fix it,” Navarro wrote in a Financial Times op-ed published Monday afternoon.
  • “This long-overdue restructuring will make both the US and global economies more resilient and prosperous by restoring fairness and balance to a system rigged against America.
  • “This is not a negotiation. For the US, it is a national emergency triggered by trade deficits caused by a rigged system.”
  • Trump administration officials have defended the President’s sweeping tariff policy announced on April 2 as stocks worldwide have sold off since these levies were revealed over concerns of a recession sparked by an escalating trade war.
  • On Monday, President Trump threatened to slap additional tariffs on China unless Beijing removes the levies it imposed on US-made goods last week in retaliation to the president’s sweeping reciprocal tariffs.
  • “We will want to hear from countries including Cambodia, Mexico and Vietnam that you will stop allowing China to evade US tariffs by trans-shipping exports through your countries,” wrote Navarro on Monday.
  • “The far bigger threat lies in the web of non-tariff barriers that continue to choke American industries. And that, too, must end.”
  • Tesla stock trimmed losses to decline more than 1% on Monday afternoon as the major averages recovered during a volatile trading session.
  • The EV maker’s stock had been down more than 9% in early trading, weighed by the recent market rout and a price target cut at Wedbush.
  • Yahoo Finance’s Pras Subramanian reports:
  • Read more here.
  • The S&P 500 (^GSPC) rose 0.4%, and the Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) also flipped into green territory on Monday afternoon during a chaotic session on Wall Street. The tech-heavy index gained as much as 0.9% after trading down as much as 4% in early trading.
  • The S&P 500 and Nasdaq erased steep losses to flip between positive and negative territory as investors eyed any developments on President Trump’s tariff policy.
  • On Monday morning, Trump threatened to slap an additional 50% tariff on goods from China unless Beijing removes its retaliatory levies against US-made goods, which were announced last week after Trump revealed sweeping levies against a list of countries.
  • Gold futures (GC=F) slipped more than 1% to slip below $3,000 per ounce on Monday during a chaotic trading session on Wall Street.
  • The precious metal flipped between positive and negative territory as the major averages also briefly turned positive before sinking back down amid a series of tariff-related headlines.
  • On Monday morning President Trump threatened to “impose ADDITIONAL Tariffs on China of 50%,” effective April 9, unless Beijing removes retaliatory levies against US imports announced last week following Trump’s sweeping levies on trading partners.
  • Gold has been a safe haven for investors amid the escalating trade war in recent months. The precious metal surged above $3,000 in mid-March, making multiple all-time high records this year.
  • By 1:15 p.m. ET, bullion futures had pulled back to trade near $2,985 amid a market sell-off. However the precious metal has recently outperformed other commodities like copper and silver. The threat of a recession in the US or globally has sparked fears of decreasing demand for industrial metals.
  • Reuters reports:
  • Read more here.
  • The S&P 500 (^GSPC) may follow the Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) into a bear market at today’s close if significant losses continue.
  • Stocks enter a bear market when major indexes like the Nasdaq, S&P 500, or Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) fall 20% or more from their recent highs, signaling a significant decline in market sentiment. This drop often leads investors to have more cautious outlooks.
  • Take the S&P 500, for example. It hit a peak of 6,144.15 on Feb. 19, 2025. According to S&P Global data, if the index closes at or below 4,915.32, it would officially mark the start of a bear market.
  • Notably, the Nasdaq entered a bear market on Friday after it closed down more than 20% from its record set on Dec. 16.
  • Earlier today, the S&P 500 (^GSPC) fell over 3%, but by noon, the benchmark index began to pare losses and narrowed its decline to around 1.6%. Meanwhile, the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) initially retreated by 4% but recovered to a decline of 1.5%.
  • A bear market is the opposite of a bull market. While a bear market occurs when an index falls 20% or more from its recent high, a bull market happens when an index rises 20% from its recent low. Both mark significant shifts in market sentiment, with bear markets signaling widespread pessimism and bull markets indicating growing optimism.
  • President Trump once again revived his calls for the Fed to cut interest rates. But Wall Street experts say rate cuts won’t necessarily solve the US economy’s problems.
  • In a Truth Social Post early Monday, Trump said, “The slow-moving Fed should cut rates!”
  • The statement echoes comments the president made last week, arguing now is the “PERFECT time” for Fed Chair Jerome Powell to cut rates. Markets continued to crater Monday following the latest tariff escalation, with Trump threatening to boost tariffs on China by another 50%. That would be on top of the 54% the administration had already promised.
  • Wall Street is currently pricing in four interest rate cuts by year-end, largely due to growth fears and the increased probability of a US recession. Powell, though, has given investors few assurances that the recent sell-off would prompt a quick response from the central bank.
  • In prepared remarks delivered Friday, Powell said, “While tariffs are highly likely to generate at least a temporary rise in inflation, it is also possible that the effects could be more persistent.”
  • “Our obligation is to keep longer-term inflation expectations well anchored and to make certain that a one-time increase in the price level does not become an ongoing inflation problem.”
  • Julia Coronado, president and founder of MacroPolicy Perspectives, told Yahoo Finance on Monday that Powell’s “wait and see” approach is likely the right move.
  • “We see risks to both sides of our mandates,” she said. “The ultimate responsibility of the Fed is to be the adult in the room. And right now, that means being patient and letting some of this play out.”
  • Coronado added the Fed does not have the ability “to just step in and catch the falling knife here” given the inflationary nature of Trump’s proposed tariffs, along with the plummeting US dollar as global markets reassess Us economic strength.
  • “Every time the market corrects, there’s rumors swirling that the Fed is going to come in and cut rates,” she said. “President Trump is calling on the Fed to come in and cut rates. And by the way, that may not be the antidote you think it is.”
  • “We’re in an extraordinarily difficult and dangerous situation where there’s not an easy policy solution when policy itself is the problem.”
  • Early market action Monday showed investors are clearly still holding out hope for the Trump administration to scale back its tariff plans. But the same logic works in reverse too.
  • At 11:14 a.m. Trump posted on social media that the United States will “impose ADDITIONAL Tariffs on China of 50%, effective April 9th.”
  • Stocks quickly took a leg lower following the post.
  • A key market fear right now remains that as countries respond to Trump’s tariffs, the president could respond by escalating the trade war further. As strategists have cut their year-end S&P 500 targets, many have also been offering a “bear case” scenario for the benchmark index. Most of those scenarios are centered around a further escalation of the trade war between the US and other countries or the US not backing down from its current tariff stance.
  • In a note to clients, JPMorgan global equity strategist Dubravko Lakos-Bujas outlined a “bear case” scenario in which the S&P 500 ends the year around 4,000. This scenario comes alongside “no tariff relief,” Lakos-Bujas wrote.
  • Morgan Stanley chief investment officer Mike Wilson wrote in a note to clients on Sunday that the S&P 500 could see 7% or 8% downside from Friday’s closing levels “if there is no line of sight to a less severe trade environment and the Fed remains firmly on hold.”
  • During a chaotic trading morning on Wall Street sparked by President Trump’s tariff policy, Trump went on social media to urge people not to panic.
  • “The United States has a chance to do something that should have been done DECADES AGO. Don’t be Weak! Don’t be Stupid! Don’t be a PANICAN (A new party based on Weak and Stupid people!). Be Strong, Courageous, and Patient, and GREATNESS will be the result!”
  • The post came after the major averages swung from steep losses to gains, back to negative territory following a social media headline post indicating Trump was considering a 90-day pause on tariffs. The White House subsequently said that was “fake news.”
  • A wild 20 minutes of trading that sent the S&P 500 (^GSPC) from bear market territory to being on track for its best single-day rise in more than two years, revealed two key things about the state of play right now.
  • For one, as our Alexandra Canal just highlighted, there is clearly a desperation among investors for the Trump administration to step in and back off its firm tariff stance.
  • Second, it’s just utter chaos in markets right now. A headline that was never confirmed just sent the three major stock indexes on the kind of wild ride typically seen when a YouTuber is talking about GameStop (GME) on a live stream.
  • As Renaissance Macro head of economics Neil Dutta just wrote in an email, “The S&P 500 trading like Fartcoin is probably not a good thing.”
  • And for those wondering, Dutta isn’t being completely unserious here. Fartcoin (FARTCOIN-USD) is a real cryptocurrency with a volatile trading history.
  • In less than 15 minutes, markets drastically reversed gains after confusion emerged over whether or not President Trump was considering a 90-day pause on implementing reciprocal tariffs.
  • Just after 10 a.m. ET, stocks skyrocketed from early losses, with the S&P 500 on track for its best day since November 2022.
  • The catalyst: Headlines that White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett said Trump would consider pausing the expected tariffs.
  • Only problem? He never actually said that. The White House later confirmed the headline was “fake news” in a post on X.
  • “I think the president is going to decide what the president is going to decide,” Hassett said in an interview with Fox News when asked specifically if Trump would consider a 90-day pause. Shortly after that clarity emerged, stocks sold off once again.
  • The takeaway: Markets are desperate for any sign of change from the administration, which has largely stayed the course. The “Trump put” is alive and well. But only if he chooses to use it.
  • Markets have been yearning for the Trump Administration to send a lifeline on tariffs. On Tuesday, it came via reports that National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett said Trump is considering a 90-day tariff delay.
  • The Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) quickly rose more than 4% as the headline crossed, erasing significant losses from the open. With minutes, the tech-heavy gave back nearly all of those gains. At last check, the tech-heavy index was now down 0.8%.
  • A look at the Nasdaq chart below encapsulates the last 15 minutes of trading.
  • JPMorgan’s head of global equity strategy, Mislav Matejka, warned in a note Monday that three things need to happen for investors to feel comfortable buying again.
  • Yahoo Finance’s Brian Sozzi reports:
  • Read more here.
  • President Trump appeared to try to calm markets on Monday morning after indicating the Trump administration is speaking with countries following his sweeping tariff announcement last week.
  • “Countries from all over the World are talking to us,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Tough but fair parameters are being set. Spoke to the Japanese Prime Minister this morning. He is sending a top team to negotiate! They have treated the U.S. very poorly on Trade. They don’t take our cars, but we take MILLIONS of theirs. Likewise Agriculture, and many other “things.” It all has to change, but especially with CHINA!!!”
  • The president made the remarks just a few minutes before the market open. Still, stocks opened in the red on Monday morning for a third day in a row of heavy selling.
  • US stocks slid for a third day in a row Monday amid a global stock fallout sparked last week following the Trump administration’s sweeping tariff policy.
  • The S&P 500 (^GSPC) fell over 3%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) retreating 4%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) tanked more than 1,200 points.
  • Stocks are continuing to sell off after their worst week since March 2020 as Trump signaled that he won’t change up his trade policy to relieve markets.
  • “Sometimes you have to take medicine to fix something,” Trump told a reporter over the weekend.
  • Stocks briefly came off its pre-market lows after JPMorgan’s Jamie Dimon’s remarks in a new 59-page shareholder letter on Monday, where he warned of the many uncertainties from the sweeping trade policies on investments, capital flows, corporate confidence, and the US dollar.
  • Oil continued to slide on Monday morning as fears of cratering demand steepened losses from last week.
  • “Magnificent Seven” stocks slid, led by declines in Tesla (TSLA), Nvidia (NVDA), and Apple (AAPL), as the European Union prepares its own set of countermeasures following China’s retaliatory levies announced last Friday.
  • President Trump has doubled down on his aggressive tariff policy, saying late Sunday that “sometimes you have to take medicine to fix something.”
  • His closest allies are supporting that narrative, even as the administration’s global tariff escalation threatens to send stocks into a bear market.
  • On Monday, White House economic advisor Peter Navarro said that tariffs will pay for the biggest tax cut in American history.
  • “Don’t get panicked out by all of this,” he said in an interview with CNBC. “The broadest-based tax cut in American history is coming in a matter of months. So any discussions of recession seem silly when you factor that in.”
  • Navarro also noted the recent movement in Treasury yields, with the 10-year (^TNX) falling as much as 20 basis points since Trump’s tariff announcement.
  • “The Fed is not going to do its job,” Navarro said. “But the long bond is doing it.”
  • Other members of the administration have also downplayed the impact on the US economy.
  • “Americans who want to retire right now — the Americans who put away for years in their savings accounts — I think they don’t look at the day-to-day fluctuations [in the stock market],” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent in an interview with NBC News’s “Meet the Press.”
  • Bessent would be the likely voice to calm markets, RSM chief economist Joe Brusuelas told Yahoo Finance on Friday. So far, that hasn’t happened.
  • Meanwhile, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnik argued that Trump’s protectionist agenda will restore domestic manufacturing jobs.
  • “The army of millions and millions of human beings screwing in little, little screws to make iPhones — that kind of thing is going to come to America,” he told CBS News’s “Face the Nation”.
  • None of those arguments have been enough to persuade investors, with stocks on track to take another large leg lower at Monday’s opening bell.

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