Stocks fell sharply in early trading Monday, extending last week’s massive sell-off, as the Trump administration showed no signs over the weekend of backing down from its plan to impose wide-ranging tariffs.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 4.2%, or more than 1,600 points, about 10 minutes after the opening bell, while the S&P 500 and tech-heavy Nasdaq retreated 4.5% and 4.9%, respectively.
The major indexes are coming off their worst week since the early days of the Covid pandemic in March 2020, after stocks plunged on Thursday and Friday following President Trump’s announcement of sweeping tariffs on U.S. trading partners. The benchmark S&P 500 declined 10.5% over the last two days of the week, while the Dow shed nearly 4,000 points.
Trump and other White House officials have provided no indication in recent days that the tariffs could be scaled back. Trump seemed to double down on his tariffs Sunday night, telling reporters aboard Air Force One, “I don’t want anything to go down, but sometimes you have to take medicine to fix something,” according to reports.
The so-called reciprocal tariffs that Trump announced on Wednesday— which include new levies of 20% on imports from the European Union, 26% on Japanese imports, and 34% on imports from China—are due to take effect on Wednesday.
The Trump administration, which has also indicated more sector-specific tariffs are coming, says the measures are needed to restore competitive balance and bring manufacturing and jobs back to the U.S. However, the speed and depth of the policies announced in recent weeks—and the prospect that countries will retaliate, as China did on Friday—have heightened concerns among economists and investors that the economy could slide into a recession.
EV maker Tesla (TSLA) and AI chipmaker Nvidia (NVDA) were leading the decliners among mega-cap technology stocks this morning, falling 8% and 6%, respectively. Apple (AAPL) was down 6%, while Microsoft (MSFT), Amazon (AMZN), Alphabet (GOOG), Meta Platforms (META) and Broadcom (AVGO) all fell more than 3%.
Among other noteworthy tech sector decliners in early trading, data analytics software provider Palantir (PLTR) dropped 7%, while chipmakers Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) and Intel (INTC) slipped 7% and 5%, respectively.
Banking sector stocks remained under pressure this morning after posting steep declines late last week. JPMorgan Chase (JPM) and Citigroup (C) each declined 3%, while Goldman Sachs (GS) dropped 5%.
Strategy (MSTR), formerly known as MicroStrategy and one of the world’s largest holders of bitcoin, and trading platform Robinhood Markets (HOOD) both dropped more than 10% as the price of the digital currency plunged.
Bitcoin was trading at $76,300, down from about $84,000 on Friday afternoon. The legacy cryptocurrency is trading at its lowest level since around the time of the presidential election in early November, as investors reduce their exposure to risky assets.
Crude oil futures also continued sliding as the concerns rise about the possibility of a dramatic slowdown in global economic activity. West Texas Intermediate futures, the U.S. benchmark, were down 2.2% at $60.65 recently, after hitting a four-year low.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury note, which has fallen sharply in recent weeks amid the mounting concerns about a recession, was at 4.02% recently, up from 3.99% at Friday’s close. The yield, which affects borrowing costs on all sorts of loans, fell as low as 3.86% during Friday’s session, its lowest level since October.
Gold futures were up 0.3% at $3,045 an ounce.
