U.S. stocks turned lower again on Monday, marking the latest move in roller-coaster trading as mixed signals about President Donald Trump’s tariffs brought major reversals, from losses to gains to losses again.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 800 points, or 2%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq fell 1.3%. The S&P 500 declined 1.7%.
Markets dropped sharply at the open of trading before recovering all of those losses and turning higher.
“Countries from all over the World are talking to us,” Trump said on Truth Social. “Tough but fair parameters are being set.”
Soon afterward, Trump threatened to slap an additional 50% tariff on China, unless the country withdraws 34% retaliatory tariffs announced last week. Those retaliatory tariffs came in response to a 34% tariff announced by the U.S. days earlier, which came on top of 20% tariffs already imposed on China. The threatened 50% tariff would bring total U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods to 104%.
The murky path forward for tariffs — and, in turn, the global economy — helped fuel seesaw trading on Monday, Bret Kenwell, U.S. investment analyst at eToro, told ABC News.
“It’s an immense amount of volatility at the moment amid an immense amount of uncertainty,” Kenwell said.
Ivan Feinseth, a market analyst at Tigress Financial, also underscored the high stakes of tariffs.
“You can draw a line from these tariffs to the fact they could slow growth, increase inflation and put the Federal Reserve on hold. Now everything is in a panic,” Feinseth said.
The brief upsurge for markets in response to potential tariff negotiations, however, indicated eagerness among investors for a thaw in global trade tensions, Feinseth added.
“The market is wound up to bounce back on positive news,” Feinseth said.
Ultimately, the market continued to move lower on Monday. That selloff extended losses that stretch back to Trump’s announcement of far-reaching tariffs last week. The Dow suffered its worst week since 2020, and the Nasdaq ended last week in a bear market.
A currency trader reacts at the foreign exchange dealing room of the KEB Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, on April 7, 2025.
Crypto prices drop
The sell-off on Monday also hit crypto markets.
Bitcoin, the world’s largest cryptocurrency, fell 0.9%. The price of a bitcoin stands at about $79,000, which marks a roughly 30% drop from a peak attained in January.
Ether dropped 3.4%, while lesser-known coin Solana fell 1.1%.
Hong Kong leads Asian slide
Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 index lost nearly 9% shortly after the market opened on Monday, the steep decline triggering a circuit breaker that temporarily halted trading. Japan’s broader TOPIX index sank 8%.
In Taiwan, the Taiex lost 9.7%, while in Singapore the STI fell more than 8%.
South Korea’s KOSPI index fell more than 5.5% in Monday trading, with Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 sliding more than 6% before recovering slightly.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index dropped 13.22% — its worst one-day performance since 1997 during the Asian Financial Crisis — with Chinese tech stocks like Alibaba and Baidu among the big losers.
On the mainland — where there are fewer international investors — the Shanghai Composite Index dropped more than 7%, despite being buoyed by state-owned investors known as the “National Team.”
India’s stock markets also struggled. The BSE’s Sensex dropped 5.19% while the broader Nifty tumbled 5%.
Asian markets collectively posted their worst day trading session since 2008.
Europe joins rout
European indexes followed suit on Monday morning.
The British FTSE 100 index fell 6% upon opening, while the pan-European Stoxx 600 index dropped more than 6%.
Germany’s DAX index fell 10%, France’s CAC lost 6.6% and Italy’s FTSE MIB slid 5.7%.
An electronic board showing the Nikkei 225 index on the Tokyo Stock Exchange is seen in Tokyo, Japan, on April 7, 2025.
Kazuhiro Nogi/AFP via Getty Images
US braced for more losses
Investors expected continued market turmoil on Monday in response to Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs announced last week.
Speaking with reporters on Air Force One on Sunday, Trump addressed the recent market turbulence and subsequent fears of an imminent recession.
“Now what’s going to happen with the market? I can’t tell you, but I can tell you, our country has gotten a lot stronger, and eventually it’ll be a country like no other, it’ll be the most dominant country economically in the world,” Trump said.
“I don’t want anything to go down, but sometimes you have to take medicine to fix something and we have such a horrible — we have been treated so badly by other countries because we had stupid leadership that allowed this to happen,” the president added.
U.S. markets closed significantly down on Friday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeted 2,230 points, or 5.5%, while the S&P 500 plunged 6%.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq declined 5.8%. The decline put the Nasdaq into bear market territory, meaning the index has fallen more than 20% from its recent peak.
The trading session on Friday marked the worst day for U.S. stocks since 2020. The second-worst day for U.S. stocks since 2020 happened on Thursday, a day earlier.
ABC News’ Ellie Kaufman, Karson Yiu, Zunaira Zaki, Max Zahn and Hannah Demissie contributed to this report.
