Dow drops more than 1,200 as US stock market leads a worldwide sell-off following Donald Trump’s tariff shock
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World markets spooked as new U.S. tariffs escalate trade war.

Financial markets around the world are reeling Thursday following President Donald Trump’s latest and most severe volley of tariffs, and the U.S. stock market may be taking the worst of it.

The S&P 500 was down 3.3% in early trading, worse than the drops for other major stock markets. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 1,204 points, or 2.9%, as of 9:50 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 4.3% lower.

Little was spared as fear flared globally about the potentially toxic mix of higher inflation and weakening economic growth that tariffs can create. Prices fell for everything from crude oil to Big Tech stocks to small companies that invest only in U.S. real estate. Even gold, which has hit records recently as investors sought something safer to own, pulled lower. The value of the U.S. dollar also slid against other currencies, including the euro and Canadian dollar.

Investors worldwide knew Trump was going to announce a sweeping set of tariffs late Wednesday, and fears surrounding it had already pulled the S&P 500 10% below its all-time high last month. But Trump still managed to surprise them with “the worst case scenario for tariffs,” according to Mary Ann Bartels, chief investment officer at Sanctuary Wealth.

Trump announced a minimum tariff of 10% on imports, with the tax rate running much higher on products from certain countries like China and those from the European Union. It’s “plausible” the tariffs altogether, which would rival levels unseen in roughly a century, could knock down U.S. economic growth by 2 percentage points this year and raise inflation close to 5%, according to UBS.

Such a hit would be so frightening that it “makes one’s rational mind regard the possibility of them sticking as low,” according to Bhanu Baweja and other strategists at UBS.

Wall Street had long assumed Trump would use tariffs merely as a tool for negotiations with other countries, rather than as a long-term policy. But Wednesday’s announcement may suggest Trump sees tariffs more as helping to solve an ideological goal – wresting manufacturing jobs back to the United States, for example – than just an opening bet in a poker game.

Associated Press


12 comments

  • Peachy

    April 3, 2025 at 10:39 am

    Equities are on sale. Buy! Buy! Buy! Should we find out what Pelosi is doing? She has outperformed every hedge fund manager. True brilliance and she doesn’t read a thing.

    Reply

  • Bill

    April 3, 2025 at 10:51 am

    Gee … who would have expected that to happen?

    Reply

  • PeterH

    April 3, 2025 at 11:40 am

    Fasten your seat belts…. prepare for impact. The Republican clown bus is headed for a cliff. 🚌

    Reply

  • Linwood Wright

    April 3, 2025 at 12:40 pm

    You really have to be a special kind of stupid to have voted for Trump.

    Anybody who hasn’t just been plugging their brain into Fox News, Newsmax, and AM talk radio to be told what to think saw this all coming from 10 miles away. But now that some of these boomers are going to lose their retirement while seeing their social security vanish too, they’ll wake up to the fact that billionaire elites in power are not your allies. Hope it’s not too late.

    Reply

    • Peachy

      April 3, 2025 at 12:49 pm

      So the peak of the Dow Jones was 45K. Now we are down to roughly 41K. What is that 10%? So how are boomers losing their retirement. Oh and what is this MSNBC, CNN propaganda about SSA going away?

      Reply

      • Linwood Wright

        April 3, 2025 at 1:50 pm

        Keep licking those billionaires boot Peachy.

        Reply

  • Michael K

    April 3, 2025 at 12:49 pm

    It’s called shorting the market. Of course, we’ll never know exactly how much Trump and his stable of economic “geniuses” stand to gain from this market manipulation.

    It’s magical thinking to wish for an era of 1950s manufacturing jobs returning – stripped of any union benefits or protection, of course.

    The billionaires will Hoover up cheap stocks, while average working Americans lucky enough to have retirement accounts will take a big hit. And the people at the very bottom will pay far more for almost everything. Bogus and dishonest accounting will “justify” more huge tax cuts… for billionaires. And our former friends and allies, tired of chaos and the petty tyrant, will seek and find new markets, and better friends.

    Glad to see Congress is finally waking up.

    Reply

  • Henry Lerner

    April 3, 2025 at 1:53 pm

    I’m no longer even worried about a recession at this point. By now we should be worried about a full on economic meltdown and an actual second Great Depression under this administration.

    History has already shown us that tariffs make everything worse, and that everything Trump touches turns to sh*t.

    Reply

  • Ocean Joe

    April 3, 2025 at 3:15 pm

    Trump Pearl Harbored the stock market, and ran off to play golf. Enjoy the cake!

    Reply

    • Michael K

      April 3, 2025 at 3:18 pm

      Yes more golfing and grifting.

      Reply

  • PeterH

    April 3, 2025 at 3:22 pm

    Trump is celebrating with a long weekend in West Palm Beach. This incompetent hasn’t worked a day in his life.

    Reply

    • Michael K

      April 3, 2025 at 5:12 pm

      And playing with the $audi$. You know, the ones who brutally murdered Jamal Khashoggi, a WaPo journalist, during Trump’s first term.

      Reply

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