Market Highlights

Economic angst enveloped every corner of Wall Street as US-China trade tensions escalate, sparking a slide in stocks, the dollar and oil, with liquidations in US assets pointing to disorder in the financial system. A day after the biggest stock-buying wave in years, assets tied to the economic cycle are sinking again, with President Donald Trump’s mollifying message on trade talks providing little relief. Investors are rushing to game out how the effective freezing of Chinese trade will impact companies and growth. The S&P 500 fell 3.5%. The dollar saw its worst day since 2022. A solid US sale of 30-year Treasuries failed to ignite a rally, but signaled appetite for bonds.

Donald Trump’s pledge to pause tariffs on some trading partners ignited the biggest burst of buying Wall Street has seen since 2008. After narrowly avoiding a bear market, the S&P 500 staged a historic bounce from a selloff that wiped out trillions from global share prices amid the specter of a full-blown trade war that fueled fears of a US recession. The equity benchmark soared 9.5%, the most since the global financial crisis, while the Nasdaq 100 surged 12% as euphoria gripped markets after four days of bruising, high-volume trading. Nearly every stock in major gauges rose.

Wild swings lashed Wall Street for a fourth straight session as back-and-forth trade threats between the US and China knocked down stocks, erasing an earlier rally that was the biggest since 2022. The S&P 500 fell 1.6%, leaving it on the brink of a bear market. Hopes for a quick end to extreme volatility were dashed after a White House official said the US is moving forward with tariffs on China as high as 104% while Premier Li Qiang said his country has ample policy tools to “fully offset” negative external shocks. Long-term Treasury yields soared after a lackluster US sale of notes highlighted cracks in the haven status of government debt

Waves of volatility shook markets anew, with stocks, bonds and commodities getting whipsawed by another deluge of headlines around President Donald Trump’s trade war that only reinforced the clouds hanging over the outlook for investing and the economy. Traders looking for equities to snap back after a selloff of trillions of dollars were faced with a series of twists and turns on Monday. While the S&P 500 moved away from the threshold of a bear market, its bottom-to-top intraday reversal was the biggest since 2020 when Covid upended global trading. Treasuries weakened, with yields across all maturities higher by over 10 basis points — a stark turnaround from the plunge earlier in the day.

US equity futures plunged, putting the S&P 500 on track for a bear market as the Trump administration dug in on a trade war economists warn will tip the world’s largest economy into recession. Contracts on the S&P 500 Index were down 3.7% as of 12:50 a.m. in New York on Monday, after the underlying index sank 10% in the previous two sessions. The rout in futures would leave the cash index on pace to fall more than 20% from its February record. Nasdaq 100 Index futures sank 4.5%, after the tech-heavy gauge entered a bear market Friday. Russell 2000 futures lost 4%. In other stock markets, the MSCI Asia Pacific Index fell as much as 7.9% Monday, the most since October 2008. Euro Stoxx 50 futures slumped 4% A flightfrom global equities accelerated Monday and investors piled into haven assets as the fallout from US President Donald Trump’s tariffs deepened after China announced retaliatory measures.

Global markets plunged as Trump’s aggressive tariff escalation unraveled the “America First” trade, wiping out $2 trillion from the S&P 500 and sending the dollar tumbling alongside risk assets. Fears that the steepest U.S. tariffs in a century will choke growth sparked a rush into havens like Treasuries and the yen, while investors await Powell’s speech and the upcoming U.S. jobs report for clarity on the economic outlook.

Markets plunged after Trump announced a sweeping tariff plan imposing at least a 10% duty on all U.S. imports, with steeper rates for major partners like China and the EU, dashing hopes of a more measured approach. S&P 500 and Nasdaq futures tumbled, Treasuries and the yen surged on haven demand, and global equities sold off as fears of a trade war and supply chain disruptions rattled investors and forced strategists to cut U.S. stock forecasts.

Global markets remained volatile as investors braced for Trump’s imminent tariff rollout, with equities erasing earlier losses in a jittery session that closed out the S&P 500’s worst quarter relative to global peers since 2009. Uncertainty over the size and scope of the upcoming tariffs kept pressure on stocks, lifted gold to near-record levels, and drove cautious positioning, while concerns over an AI bubble and inflationary risks continued to weigh on sentiment.

Markets swung wildly ahead of Trump’s upcoming tariff announcement, with global stocks rebounding late in a volatile session while bonds and gold remained elevated amid lingering uncertainty. Despite a late-day rally, U.S. equities closed out their worst quarter relative to global peers since 2009, as investors remained cautious amid fears of an AI bubble, unclear trade policy, and slowing momentum.

Stocks plunged and gold hit a record high as weak U.S. consumer sentiment, rising inflation expectations, and looming tariffs fueled fears of a deeper economic slowdown. With global markets extending a four-day selloff and tech megacaps slumping, investors rushed to safe havens, sending Treasury yields lower and prompting forecasts of multiple rate cuts from both the Fed and ECB.