The stock market rebounded slightly to avoid a historically bad day, but the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost almost 900 points at closing Monday.
The Dow closed at a loss of 890 and was earlier heading toward its worst day since 2022 following President Donald Trump’s trade tariff chaos with Canada, Mexico and other nations. At one point, the Dow was down 1,000 points, which would have put it in the top 20 worst days in market history.
The Nasdaq suffered the most, tanking 4.2 percent, on course for its biggest single-day percentage drop since September 2022, Reuters reports. The bellwether S&P 500 closed below its 200-day moving average, a closely watched support level, for the first time since November 2023, the news agency reported.
On the day of Trump’s reelection last November, the stock market enjoyed a boost. But now, all three major indexes are below their levels on November 5, 2024.
Trump did not rule out a recession in remarks over the weekend and said it was a “period of adjustment.”
“What I have to do is build a strong country,” Trump said Sunday on Fox News. “You can’t really watch the stock market.”
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, by contrast, told NBC News: “There’s going to be no recession in America.”
Stock of Elon Musk’s Tesla lost 15 percent, while shares of Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon.com, Nvidia and Meta Platforms fell more than 3 percent.
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The fears of the recession come as Trump continues to suggest a trade war and tariffs when it comes to dealing with China, Canada and Mexico. The countries bordering the U.S. have been given a month’s reprieve from tariffs.
Canada’s most populous province, Ontario, has retaliated against Trump’s tariffs by imposing a 25 percent tax on energy to three U.S. states – New York, Minnesota and Michigan.
“This is the first time we’ve had an administration pretty much say with a straight face…the objectives are going to cause pain,” Shelby McFaddin, investment analyst at Motley Fool Asset Management, told the Wall Street Journal.
Economists warned the tariffs could unleash uncertainty and economic hardship for Americans.
JPMorgan Chase raised their risk of recession from 30 to 40 percent, according to the Journal. “We see a material risk that the U.S. falls into recession this year owing to extreme U.S. policies,” said economist Bruce Kasman.
“There are a lot of storms out there and they’re getting darker and darker,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist at credit rating agency Moody’s, told The Independent last week.
“Americans should be worried,” Zandi said, adding that Trump’s tariffs will do “serious damage” if the president doesn’t walk them back soon.
The gloomy picture from Wall Street follows last week’s monthly jobs report, which found the U.S. economy added 151,000 jobs in February, nearly 10,000 less than economists predicted.
Unemployment rose to 4.1 percent, above the 4 percent expected, according to the Labor Department’s February jobs report, published Friday morning.
