Dow drops 1,600 as US stocks lead worldwide sell-off from Trump tariffs
Wall Street plunged as Trump’s new tariffs sparked fears of a global recession, with the S&P 500 and Dow Jones suffering their worst drops since 2020
Wall Street shuddered, and a level of shock unseen since Covid’s outbreak tore through financial markets worldwide Thursday on worries about the damage President Donald Trump’s newest set of tariffs could do to economies across continents, including his own.
The S&P 500 sank 4.8 per cent, more than in major markets across Asia and Europe, for its worst day since the pandemic crashed the economy in 2020. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 1,679 points, or 4 per cent, and the Nasdaq composite tumbled 6 per cent.
Little was spared in financial markets as fear flared about the potentially toxic mix of weakening economic growth and higher inflation that tariffs can create.
Everything from crude oil to Big Tech stocks to the value of the US dollar against other currencies fell. Even gold, which hit records recently as investors sought something safer to own, pulled lower. Some of the worst hits walloped smaller US companies, and the Russell 2000 index of smaller stocks dropped 6.6 per cent to pull more than 20 per cent below its record.
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World leaders react to Trump’s new tariff blitz as global trade war escalates
Investors worldwide knew Trump was going to announce a sweeping set of tariffs late Wednesday, and fears surrounding it had already pulled Wall Street’s main measure of health, the S&P 500 index, 10 per cent below its all-time high. 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.