The stock market began the first day of the trading week down again as President Donald Trump‘s sweeping tariff policies have panicked worldwide markets.
Monday morning, the Dow Jones opened down more than 1,200 points or roughly 3%, the S&P 500 opened down 3.4%, and the Nasdaq Composite was down roughly 4%.
Several major U.S. companies also had a rough start Monday, Nike started down roughly 5%, Apple fell 5% at opening, and Amazon was down 3%.
Trump unveiled the tariff policy late Wednesday afternoon, putting a minimum 10% tariff on most of the country’s trading partners. The 10% tariff rates began Saturday, while higher reciprocal tariff rates for select other countries are set to begin Wednesday. The stock market reacted negatively during trading hours Thursday and Friday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average falling 7.41% last week, and experts saying $6 trillion of wealth had been erased.
TRUMP SIGNALS SWEEPING TARIFFS HERE TO STAY AS FUTURES MARKET PLUNGES
Markets across the globe also tanked on the opening trading day of the week. Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 7.8%, Europe’s Stoxx 600 fell 5%, South Korea’s Kospi index fell nearly 5.6%, and Germany’s DAX index fell more than 4%.
Analysts had feared a grim day of trading Monday, with CNBC’s Jim Cramer warning over the weekend stocks could tumble similarly to “Black Monday” in 1987, where the Dow Jones dropped more than 22% in one day.
Trump administration officials have offered mixed signals on if the tariffs are permanent or could be negotiated. The president does not seem keen on moving away from his tariff plan, doubling down on it on Air Force One Sunday and taking aim at China for retaliatory tariffs in a post on Truth Social Monday morning.
WHITE HOUSE ADVISERS SPLIT ON DEFENDING TRUMP TARIFFS AS PERMANENT OR A NEGOTIATING TACTIC
“Oil prices are down, interest rates are down (the slow moving Fed should cut rates!), food prices are down, there is NO INFLATION, and the long time abused USA is bringing in Billions of Dollars a week from the abusing countries on Tariffs that are already in place,” Trump said Monday. “This is despite the fact that the biggest abuser of them all, China, whose markets are crashing, just raised its Tariffs by 34%, on top of its long term ridiculously high Tariffs (Plus!), not acknowledging my warning for abusing countries not to retaliate.”
“They’ve made enough, for decades, taking advantage of the Good OL’ USA! Our past “leaders” are to blame for allowing this, and so much else, to happen to our Country. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” he added.
