Stocks tumble as sell-off deepens after Trump’s tariffs
Stocks cratered on Thursday, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite suffering their worst session since 2020 as investors flee risk assets over concern that Trump’s tariffs will ignite a trade war and spur a recession.
The S&P 500 fell 4.84% to close at 5,396.52, while the Nasdaq Composite lost 5.97% to 16,550.61. The Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeted 1,679.39 points, or 3.98%, to finish the session at 40,545.93.
— Brian Evans
Trump was asked when leaving the White House on Thursday about the stock market decline, and he indicated that this would be a temporary reaction to the tariffs.
“I think it’s going very well. It was an operation, like when a patient gets operated on, and it’s a big thing. I said this would exactly be the way it is. … The markets are going to boom. The stock is going to boom. The country is going to boom. And the rest of the world wants to see is there any way they can make a deal,” Trump said.
— Jesse Pound
Coca-Cola beverages are offered for sale in Chicago on April 30, 2024.
Scott Olson | Getty Images
Shares of Coca-Cola rose 2.5% on Thursday and hit a record high, bucking the broader market sell-off.
Coca-Cola could be benefiting from a flight to safety by investors. The stock is often categorized as a consumer staple, and the company enjoys strong brand loyalty among its customers that could result in better pricing power and sturdy demand.
The strong performance for the stock comes despite the fact that less than half the company’s net revenue comes from the North American market.
— Jesse Pound
Bank stocks notched outsized losses on Thursday as Trump’s controversial tariff announcement ratcheted up economic uncertainty.
The SPDR S&P Bank ETF (KBE) lost around 8%, while the SPDR S&P Regional Banking ETF (KRE) dove more than 9%. Both are on track to record their biggest one-day slides since the regional banking crisis in March 2023.
Western Alliance Bancorporation led the sector down, tumbling around 14%. Citigroup and Bank of America were among the biggest losers within major bank stocks, with slides of more than 11% and 10%, respectively.
Concerns of a slowdown in economic activity tend to weigh on bank stocks. That is because this backdrop can result in less spending, which means less transactions for financial firms.
— Alex Harring
President Trump’s rollout of steep duties on imports from trading partners when taken in aggregate implies an overall tariff rate of 25%, according to an estimate from Fitch Ratings. That represents the highest effective tariff rate in more than 115 years, the firm said.
“U.S. tariffs have reached levels that are transforming the global economic outlook, significantly raising US recession risks and constraining the Federal Reserve’s ability to lower interest rates further,” Fitch said Thursday.
— Brian Evans
Small-cap stocks entered bear market territory on Thursday amid a major market sell-off on the heels of the Trump administration’s new tariff policy.
The Russell 2000 Index was down more than 5% during the session, which puts its losses from its Nov. 25 record close at more than 21%. A 10% decline from its high is considered a correction, while a 20% decline is a bear market.
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.RUT, 1-day
Check out some of the companies making headlines in midday trading:
- Lululemon — The athleisure company saw shares plunging more than 11% after President Trump’s imposition of tariffs on countries where the firm imports a big portion of its products. In 2024, Lululemon sourced 40% of its products from Vietnam, which was hit by a 46% tariff by the administration. Almost 90% of Lululemon’s products are made in Vietnam, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, Indonesia and Bangladesh.
- Deckers Outdoor — Shares of the footwear company plunged more than 14% following Trump’s reciprocal tariffs rollout. The Ugg maker has 68 supply chain partners in Vietnam and 125 suppliers in China.
- Nike — The athletic apparel stock declined 12.1% following the Trump administration’s wide-ranging tariffs upon major trading partners. Nike manufactures roughly half its footwear in China and Vietnam, which will be subject to tariff rates of 54% and 46%, respectively.
Read the full list here.
— Brian Evans
Maybe they knew it was coming.
Individual investors were already the most bearish going into Trump’s tariff campaign since the bottom of the global financial crisis in March 2009, according to the latest weekly poll by the American Association of Individual Investors.
Pessimism toward the outlook for stocks over the coming six months soared to 61.9%, up from 52.2% last week and above the recent high of 60.6% in late February, not to mention readings of 60.8% and 60.9% in September 2022. In fact, this week’s bearish views, the highest since 70.3% pessimism more than 16 years ago, were the third-highest reading ever in the history of the survey, which dates from the 1980s.
But things can always get worse since “most of this week’s survey responses were captured prior to President Trump’s tariff announcement on Wednesday, April 2,” the Chicago-based AAII said.
— Scott Schnipper
The Russell 2000 tumbled as much as 6.5% on Thursday, putting the small-caps index on pace for its worst day since June 11, 2020, when it fell 7.58%.
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RUT-RUX YTD chart
Amid today’s post-tariff announcement rout in the stock market, the U.S. benchmark S&P 500 index has lost almost $2 trillion in value during today’s trading, according to S&P Dow Jones Indices Senior Index analyst Howard Silverblatt.
With today’s plunge, the country’s largest 500 stocks have more than doubled their losses for the year. About $1.92 trillion has been lost in value today compared to the $1.75 trillion for all of 2025 as of Wednesday’s close.
Even though today’s sell-off is very broad-based, with about 3 out of every 4 stocks down in the S&P 500, about half of today’s market cap losses have been amassed by the “Magnificent Seven” stocks, which have lost a record $950 billion in today’s session. The combined group of Nvidia, Apple, Alphabet, Microsoft, Meta, Amazon and Tesla is down 23% from its 52-week high in mid-December.
— Robert Hum, Nick Wells
Jimmy Choo, Michael Kors and Versace stores on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills, California, on April 18, 2024.
Eric Thayer | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Affordable luxury stocks were crushed in Thursday’s tariff-induced sell-off, falling between three and five times more than the S&P 500.
Capri Holdings, owner of Versace, Jimmy Choo and Michael Kors, tumbled as much as 24.9% in early trading Thursday, while Kate Spade and Coach holding company Tapestry Inc. fell as much as 15.6%.
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Capri Holdings over the past six months.
In Paris, the less-affordable LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton, owner of Christian Dior and Tiffany & Co., dropped as much as 5.9%.
Tapestry and Capri called off a planned merger in 2024 after U.S. antitrust regulators blocked the deal, and French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday called on French companies to stop investing in the U.S. because of the Trump administration’s decision to boost tariffs on all imported goods.
— Scott Schnipper
Philip Nathan Jefferson testifies before a Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee confirmation hearing in Washington, D.C., on February 3, 2022.
Ken Cedeno | AFP | Getty Images
Federal Reserve Vice Chair Philip Jefferson said Thursday he still expects inflation to cool over the longer term, even with worries that tariffs could push prices higher.
In remarks for a policy speech in Atlanta, the central bank official noted that tariff worries have “consumers and businesses reporting that they expect higher inflation in the near term.” However, he sees other measures of long-term inflation expectations indicating an eventual move back to the Fed’s 2% goal.
Within that environment, Jefferson said the Fed can continue to be patient on interest rates.
“In my view, there is no need to be in a hurry to make further policy rate adjustments. The current policy stance is well positioned to deal with the risks and uncertainties that we face in pursuing both sides of our dual mandate,” he said.
— Jeff Cox
President Trump’s intensive tariff rollout on Wednesday adds more questions to what was already a hesitant market, according to Raymond James.
“The reciprocal tariff announcement by President Trump was significantly bolder than market expectations, ushering in new uncertainty,” Raymond James managing director and Washington policy analyst Ed Mills wrote Thursday.
“President Trump stated that reciprocal tariffs can be avoided if other countries drop their tariffs and non-tariff barriers. It might not be that simple,” he added. “We have seen a variety of countries seek to lower trade barriers, reduce tariffs, and directly engage the Trump administration.”
— Brian Evans
UBS strategists had a grim inflation outlook following Trump’s tariff announcement on Wednesday.
In a Thursday note, strategist Bhanu Baweja said inflation could spike from here if these tariffs are allowed to persist for long, also causing heavy damage to the macroeconomic backdrop.
“This has the potential to considerably worsen the growth inflation mix in the U.S. and the global economy in the coming year,” the strategist wrote. “Our U.S. econ team believes it’s plausible US’ 2025 real GDP could be compromised by 1.5-2pp and inflation could rise to close to 5% if these tariffs are not reversed soon. The magnitude of damage they could cause to the U.S. economy makes one’s rational mind regard the possibility of them sticking as low.”
— Lisa Kailai Han
Gary Friedman, CEO of Restoration Hardware.
Scott Mlyn | CNBC
RH shares headed for their worst day on record as investors grappled with the double-whammy of tariffs and poor earnings.
Shares of the luxury retailer plunged 42% around 11 a.m. ET. Currently, the stock’s worst day in its history happened in February 2016, when shares plunged 25.9%.
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RH shares, 1-day
The California-based company issued fourth-quarter earnings that missed on both lines, as well as soft guidance for revenue. CEO Gary Friedman also lamented expected effects from new levies and the rough housing market on a Wednesday call with analysts.
— Alex Harring
The U.S. dollar was falling against other global currencies on Thursday as world markets reacted to Trump’s tariff announcement.
The ICE U.S. Dollar Index was trading at 101.41 Thursday morning, down 2.2% for the session. The index has not closed below the 102 level since Oct. 3.
The fall marks a sharp reversal from the move in currency markets after Trump’s election. The dollar index briefly traded above the 110 mark in early January.
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The ICE U.S. Dollar Index fell back to early October levels on Thursday.
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Wall Street’s fear gauge was sharply higher on Thursday.
A pedestrian walks past an electronic board displaying the closing figure of the Nikkei 225 Stock Average in Tokyo on April 3, 2025.
Tomohiro Ohsumi | Getty Images News | Getty Images
The Japanese yen appreciated 2.5% versus the dollar to trade at 145.58. This marked the strongest level for the yen against the greenback since October 2024.
Investors have flocked to the yen, viewed as a safe-haven asset, amid the heightened volatility from President Trump’s broad-ranging tariffs on major U.S. trading partners.
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Yen versus dollar in 2025
We are likely just in the early stages in the tariff negotiations, and the uncertainty doesn’t bode well for the markets, according to Don Calcagni, chief investment officer at Mercer Advisors.
“The market still doesn’t have the certainty that it wants. Futures are down. USD has weakened. All suggests tariffs are viewed by the market as inflationary and anti-growth,” Calcagni said.
“Part of the reason there remains no certainty is that we have only one person — the president — deciding whether or not to levy tariffs. … We’re early innings on this,” he said.
— Yun Li
Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange at the opening bell on April 3, 2025.
Charly Triballeau | Afp | Getty Images
The S&P 500 dipped back into correction territory Thursday morning, after Trump’s tariffs spurred a stock sell-off.
The broad market index fell more than 11% below its Feb. 19 record close. A correction refers to a fall of 10% or more from a recent peak.
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S&P 500
The Nasdaq Composite was last more than 16% off its own recent peak. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was a stone’s throw away from falling into a correction itself, last off by 9.7%.
— Sarah Min
Service-sector activity was slower than expected in March and hiring intentions declined considerably, the Institute for Supply Management reported Thursday.
The ISM services index posted a 50.8 reading, representing the percentage of companies reporting expansion. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones had been looking for 52.9 after the 53.5 reading in February.
Within the survey, the employment index tumbled to 46.2, a 7.7-point drop to below the 50 cutoff for expansion. The prices index edged lower to 60.9 and new export orders fell to 45.8, a 6.3-point decline.
— Jeff Cox
Workers install steel rods at a construction site in Miami, Florida, U.S., March 11, 2025.
Giorgio Viera | Reuters
Shares of U.S.-based steel companies fell in morning trading on Thursday even with President Donald Trump’s tariffs being aimed at boosting the domestic steel industry.
U.S. Steel dipped more than 3% just after the opening bell, while others like Steel Dynamics and Nucor moved nearly 6% lower. Cleveland-Cliffs also dropped more than 9%.
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X vs. CLF, STLD and NUE, 1-day
Deckers Brands at the New York Stock Exchange on Dec. 4, 2024.
NYSE
Deckers Outdoor is among the retailers that will take a hit from President Donald Trump’s tariffs, Evercore ISI said in a note Thursday.
The Ugg maker doesn’t disclose its manufacturing exposure in detail, but analyst Jesalyn Wong believes the majority of it is in Vietnam, followed by China. Tariffs on products made in Vietnam will be raised to 46% and China to 54%, based on Trump’s announcement.
“In our initial analysis, if we were to assume ~60% manufacturing from Vietnam, ~20% from China and assume that ~65% of the revenues are to the US, we are likely to see a ~600bps compression in GM (assuming 60% of COGS are raw materials cost) and ~20%+ decline in EPS assuming no pricing increases,” Wong wrote.
“To maintain gross margins dollars constant, DECK will need to raise prices by roughly ~6%, on our math,” she added.
However, the final impact will depend on if the tariffs are negotiated lower, if there is cost sharing between manufacturers, brands and retailers, and how much of the cost will be passed on to consumers, she noted.
Shares of Deckers Outdoor were down 13% in premarket trading.
— Michelle Fox
Stocks nosedived shortly after the opening bell on Thursday, as investors contend with blowback from President Donald Trump’s tariff announcement.
The S&P 500 slipped more than 3%, while the Nasdaq Composite lost 5%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1,200 points, or 3%.
— Brian Evans
Attendees check in during a job fair at the YMCA Gerard Carter Center on March 27, 2025 in the Stapleton Heights neighborhood of the Staten Island borough in New York City.
Michael M. Santiago | Getty Images
Initial U.S. jobless claims for the week ended March 29 came in at 219,000, below a Dow Jones forecast of 228,000. The print is also below the 224,000 from the previous week.
The data comes ahead of Friday’s U.S. jobs report. Economists expect an addition of 140,000 jobs for March.
— Fred Imbert
Check out the companies making headlines before the bell:
- Lululemon – Shares tumbled more than 12% on the heels of President Donald Trump’s new wide-ranging tariffs. According to a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing, the company sourced 40% of its products from Vietnam in 2024 — a country that was slammed with a 46% tariff. Almost 90% of Lululemon’s products are made in Vietnam, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, Indonesia and Bangladesh.
- Nike — Shares slumped about 9% after the U.S. lifted tariffs Wednesday. Nike manufactures roughly half its footwear in China and Vietnam, which will be subject to tariff rates of 54% and 46%, respectively.
- Ford — The automaker slipped 2.3%. Reuters reported that Ford will offer employee pricing to all customers on multiple models to absorb tariff costs, in a program called “From America for America.”
The full list can be found here.
— Hakyung Kim
Microsoft has parted with more data center buildout plans, this time in the U.K., Australia, Illinois, North Dakota and Wisconsin, according to a report from Bloomberg on Thursday morning, citing people familiar with the plans.
Microsoft did not go into detail on the specific reasoning behind abandoning the projects, the report said. Data centers are key components of powering artificial intelligence applications and programs, and have seen billions of dollars in investments in recent years.
— Brian Evans
Employees of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) queue outside the Mary E. Switzer Memorial Building, after it was reported that the Trump administration fired staff at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and at the Food and Drug Administration, as it embarked on its plan to cut 10,000 jobs at HHS, in Washington, D.C., U.S., April 1, 2025.
Kevin Lamarque | Reuters
Elon Musk’s efforts to cut federal government payrolls resulted in a surge in layoff announcements during March topped only by the Covid-related cuts in 2020, according to outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas.
In a report Thursday, the firm said planned furloughs in the federal government totaled 216,215 for the month, the highest since May 2020 and the third-largest number in data going back to 1989. Some 280,253 layoffs hitting 27 government departments in the past two months have been linked to the Musk-led so-called Department of Government Efficiency.
—Jeff Cox
The euro soared nearly 2% against the dollar, as investors dumped the greenback following President Donald Trump’s tariff announcement.
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The euro soared against the dollar on Thursday.
The euro strengthened to roughly 1.11 euros per USD at 7:30 a.m. EST on Thursday. Citigroup recommended going long on the euro in light of the tariffs, with a target of roughly 1.15 euros.
Mexican stocks bucked the sour global market trend Thursday morning, as goods from the country were exempt from the new tariff regime for now. The iShares MSCI Mexico ETF (EWW) climbed 2.3% in the premarket.
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EWW rises
An electronic board shows Shanghai and Shenzhen stock indices as people walk on a pedestrian bridge at the Lujiazui financial district in Shanghai, China April 3, 2025.
Go Nakamura | Reuters
Asia-Pacific markets plunged Thursday, after U.S. President Donald Trump imposed hefty reciprocal tariffs on more than 180 countries and territories — several of which are in the region.
Japanese markets led losses in Asia. The benchmark Nikkei 225 pared losses of over 4% to end the day 2.77% lower at 34,735.93, while the broader Topix index closed down 3.08% at 2,568.61.
Over in South Korea, the Kospi index pared losses from more than 3% to close 0.76% lower at 2,486.70, while the small-cap Kosdaq fell 0.2% to 683.49.
Mainland China’s CSI 300 dropped 0.59% to end the day at 3,861.50, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index declined 1.52% to 22,849.81.
India’s benchmark Nifty 50 shed 0.26% while the broader BSE Sensex retreated 0.36% as at 1.45 p.m. local time.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.94% to close at 7,859.70.
— Amala Balakrishner
Europe’s Stoxx 600 index was 1.6% lower shortly after the market open early on Thursday, as traders assessed the scope and impact of U.S. tariffs.
Banks on the index were down 3.2% at 8:10 a.m. U.K. time, while technology stocks fell 2.6%.
A range of European companies expected to be hit by the measures declined sharply, with German retailers Puma and Adidas down 9% and 8.6%, respectively. Swedish automaker Volvo Cars was down 9%, and shipping giant Maersk — viewed as a barometer for global trade — shed 7.4%.
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Stoxx 600 index.
The market’s after-hours decline can be attributed to a divergence between what investors were expecting versus President Donald Trump’s tariff policy announcement earlier Wednesday afternoon, according to Art Hogan, chief market strategist at B. Riley Wealth Management.
“I think that the market had a modicum of belief that we would have an announcement on tariff and trade that was universally applied and less worse than feared. And I think that was what manifested in markets over the course of the last couple of days,” Hogan told CNBC in an interview.
But instead, it seems like the markets weren’t expecting for President Donald Trump to not only issue a blanket 10% tariff, but additional higher duties for select nations.
“What was delivered was as haphazard as anything this administration has done to date, and the level of complication on top of the ultimate level of new tariffs is worse than had been feared and not yet priced into the market,” Hogan added. “That’s exactly where I think we are right now.”
— Lisa Kailai Han
Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange moments after the Closing Bell and the start of President Donald Trump’s news conference on tariffs on April 2, 2025 in New York City.
Spencer Platt | Getty Images
President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs could push the S&P 500 back into a correction with a decline of at least 10% from its February record high, according to Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist at CFRA Research.
“I think it’ll probably push the markets lower,” Stovall told CNBC in an interview. “They will continue lower tomorrow and certainly retest the 10.1% sell-off threshold, and probably push us into a bit deeper of a correction. People were hoping for clarity and it added to opaqueness.”
“The market was not expecting it to be as harsh as it is, and as a result, Wall Street was not appreciative of what they heard,” he also said. “I think that Wall Street is basically saying that we’re not really sure what kind of retaliatory tariffs will come from our major trading partners, but what they are concerned about is that it will lead to higher inflation and lower EPS growth, if not just increased volatility.”
As of Wednesday’s close, the S&P 500 sits nearly 8% below its recent high. While the index is more than 1% higher this week, it’s fallen almost 5% in the past month.
— Sean Conlon
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INDA vs. EWJ and MCHI, 1-day
The moves lower come as Trump announced reciprocal tariffs of 26% on India, as well as 24% and 34% reciprocal tariffs on Japan and China, respectively.
— Sean Conlon
The two exchange-traded funds that track the performance of Vietnamese stocks tumbled in after-hours trading in reaction to the Trump administration imposing 46% tariffs on all goods imported from the Southeast Asian nation.
The $420 million VanEck Vietnam ETF dropped 3.2% in late trading while the $11 million Global X MSCI Vietnam ETF tumbled 6.5%.
— Scott Schnipper
International markets have outperformed U.S. equities in 2025 as investors anticipated U.S. policies would result in slower economic growth. However, President Trump’s retaliatory tariffs are a headwind on this trend, according to Scott Helfstein, head of investment strategy at Global X.
“Hope for a softer tariff policy has turned out to be misplaced. The new tariffs could take some steam out of international trade. Tariff announcements are not good news for trading partners, and the administration is likely to leave these in place for some time,” said Helfstein. “Expect market volatility to persist in the coming months as tariff data works into economic data.”
Domestic companies and industries are not immune from tariffs either, Helfstein noted, with consumer and business sentiment already showing signs of weakening.
Nonetheless, “The tariff news does not alter the long-term secular trends that will continue to drive the U.S. forward,” Helfstein added.
“Further gains in areas like AI, automation and infrastructure will help drive corporate growth and profitability, but realization of some benefits may take a little longer. So, there is still opportunity to embrace secular growth trends,” said Helfstein.
— Hakyung Kim
RH signage is displayed on a monitor on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.
Michael Nagle | Bloomberg | Getty Images
RH, G-III Apparel Group and Penske Automotive Group tumbled between 23% and 25% in after-hours trading following President Trump’s imposition of larger-than-expected tariffs on imports of foreign-made goods into the U.S.
During the president’s Rose Garden announcement, RH, formerly Restoration Hardware, released fiscal fourth-quarter earnings and revenue that fell short of Wall Street analysts’ estimates, as well as weaker-than-estimated fiscal first quarter and full-year revenue growth guidance.
Other companies that import a large number of products from overseas as part of their business model also slumped in late trading: Five Below and Gap Inc. tumbled 11% each; Deckers Outdoor dropped 10%; Lululemon Athletica, Urban Outfitters, Skechers, Shoe Carnival and Crocs slid 9%; and Williams-Sonoma and VF Corporation fell 8%.
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RH shares
President Trump held up a sign showing the rates countries will pay. Although there is a base tariff rate of 10%, the chart showed countries with larger trade imbalances could pay much more. For example, China will face a 34% rate, the European Union will be charged 20% and Vietnam will pay 46% under the reciprocal plan. A sample of the rates is in the chart above.
But some countries will face even higher rates when taking into account duties already implemented. For example, the effective rate on China goods will be more than 50%.
— Christina Cheddar Berk
Shares of iPhone maker Apple slipped nearly 5% in Wednesday’s after-hours trading.
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AAPL 5D chart
The moves came after President Donald Trump announced a blanket tariff of at least 10% for all foreign goods. Select other nations, such as China, Vietnam and India, were hit with a higher levy.
Apple is a company especially sensitive to these tariffs, since the company sells many of its products in international markets. Apple stock has been hit in recent quarters as the company has continued to experience market share losses in countries such as China to domestic competitors.
— Lisa Kailai Han
A Nike store is seen in New York City on April 2, 2025.
Kylie Cooper | Reuters
Multinational consumer stocks were sliding in after-hours trading following Trump’s tariff announcement.
- Nike fell 6%.
- Ralph Lauren dropped more than 5%.
- Estée Lauder declined 3.5%.
These companies all have significant sales outside of the U.S.
— Jesse Pound
Shortly after 4:45 p.m. ET, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY), which tracks the S&P 500, traded about 2.2% lower. The Invesco QQQ ETF, which corresponds to the Nasdaq-100 Index, lost roughly 3.2%. The SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF Trust (DIA) shed nearly 1%.
— Pia Singh
