Selling was intense for the Dow Jones Industrial Average and other major indexes Monday as recession fears mounted and Canada fired back on President Donald Trump's tariffs. Among the losers: Palantir Technologies got scorched, Nvidia continued to tumble, and Tesla saw its losses accelerate on the stock market today.
Following Friday's brief respite, indexes started tumbling again and kept sliding as morning turned to afternoon. After plunging more than 1,100 points at one juncture the Dow finished the day down 890 points, or 2.1%. Nvidia and Goldman Sachs were among the worst laggards, with each down more than 5%.
The Nasdaq composite got hammered, plummeting 4%, or nearly 728 points. The tech-heavy index lost further ground on its 200-day moving average and has fallen more than 10% so far this year.
Former Leaderboard stock DoorDash was off session lows on the index but finished the day down slightly. This was despite the news it is to join the S&P 500.
Meanwhile, Strategy, formerly known as MicroStrategy, got obliterated, crashing more than 16%. It was thrashed on news of a program that could see it offer up to $21 billion in what is known as perpetual strike preferred stock. This stock classification pays a fixed dividend.
Stock Market Today: Tech Weak With Sectors Mixed
The benchmark S&P 500 tumbled 2.7% as the bears ran wild on Wall Street. S&P 500 sectors were mostly negative on the stock market today. Only energy and utilities were higher while technology and consumer discretionary took the hardest blows.
Microchip Technology and cruise lines operator Carnival were two of the worst performers, falling nearly 11% and more than 7%, respectively.
Small caps also failed to escape the negative action on the stock market today. The Russell 2000 index was at session lows as it skidded 2.4%.
The bears also pulverized growth stocks. The Innovator IBD 50 exchange traded fund sank 3.4%, near lows for the day. The fund is now down nearly 11% thus far this year.
Volume came in higher than Friday on the New York Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq, according to preliminary data.
With some investors fleeing to the relative safety of U.S. government bonds, yields tumbled. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note fell nine basis points to 4.23%.
Tesla Stock Hammered Amid Musk Drama
There's a reason old show-business professionals avoid politics. And Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk's closeness to the Trump administration works as both a distraction from running the electric-vehicle company and threatens to make the brand toxic to a substantial portion of its potential customer base.
Tesla saw early losses intensify as it plummeted more than 15% on the stock market today. This caused it to lose further ground on its 50-day line as well as its 200-day moving average.
Tesla stock has wiped out its post-election gain, and shares now have lost more than half their value compared with their Dec. 17 high of 488.54. The automaker has seen sales in Europe crater amid Musk's newfound unpopularity there. So far in 2025, shares have dropped nearly 45%.
The stock's disappointing performance shows up in its IBD Composite Rating of 66 out of 99. However, Musk doesn't seem to be reducing his political activities in any way despite recent stock declines.
Over the weekend he got into a spat with Poland's foreign minister, Radoslaw Sikorski, on the subject of Starlink access. At one point he called the foreign official a "small man."
Starlink is a satellite internet network that offers coverage to more than 100 countries and territories. It is a subsidiary of Musk's aerospace company, SpaceX.
Meanwhile, Musk took to X Monday to say the social media website had been hit by a "massive cyberattack." He said that "either a large, coordinated group and/or a country is involved."
Stock Market Today: Oracle Swoons Ahead Of Earnings
One stock that will be closely watched after the close is Oracle, which is set to report earnings. The stock skidded more than 4% and lost ground on its 50-day and 200-day moving averages, according to MarketSurge analysis.
Oracle earnings are seen rising 11% to $1.49 as revenue climbs 8% to $14.4 billion, according to FactSet.
Investors have been punishing the computer database software stock this year. So far it is down nearly 11%.
Overall performance remains solid though. This is reflected in its IBD Composite Rating of 88 out of 99.
Earnings are seen rising 10% this year before accelerating to 14% growth in 2026.
3:22 p.m. ET
Unlucky For Some: Magnificent Seven Squashed
The rest of the U.S.' most prestigious tech titans, the so-called Magnificent Seven, also got roundly thrashed on the stock market today.
Tesla was the worst performer among the much-watched group of stocks, but action was roundly bearish.
Dow Jones stock Apple also fell sharply. The stock is dipping below its 200-day line, a late sell signal. Artificial intelligence play Nvidia suffered a similar decline.
Meta Platforms and Google-parent Alphabet were not far behind, with each dropping nearly 5%. Meta is holding above its 200-day line, but Alphabet is below it.
Amazon.com and Microsoft were the best performers, but still dropped markedly.
Sheriff Punishes Robinhood, Stock Craters
Robinhood Markets was another issue on the stock market today that was a noteworthy underperformer.
The trading platform play was getting butchered by the bears after Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, or FINRA, ordered the company to fork out $3.75 million in restitution to its customers.
The regulatory body, the veritable sheriff of the financial space, fined Robinhood Financial and Robinhood Securities $26 million for violating numerous FINRA rules, including some relating to anti-money laundering measures.
FINRA's head of enforcement Bill St. Louis said the action "reminds FINRA members that compliance with core regulatory obligations remains critical to safeguarding and serving all investors."
Robinhood stock crashed in afternoon trade. MarketSurge analysis shows the stock lost ground on its 50-day line and is sinking toward its 200-day moving average.
2:26 p.m. ET
Canada Fires Back Over Tariffs
There was further action in the U.S.' fledgling trade war with Canada, with the Commonwealth country firing back at their southern neighbors.
Canada's next prime minister, former Bank of England Governor Mark Carney, took aim at President Trump in his victory speech.
"There's someone who's trying to weaken our economy: Donald Trump," he said.
Carney won with leadership of the Canadian Liberal party with 86% of the vote. He will be sworn in as the country's new prime minister in the coming days.
He said he will seek new trading partnerships with "reliable partners." Carney has also vowed to maintain retaliatory tariffs "until the Americans show us respect."
Meanwhile, Ontario Premier Doug Ford has said that retaliatory electricity tariffs are to take effect on Americans. He also said he "will not hesitate to cut off the electricity completely."
Ontario will implement a 25% surcharge on energy exports. It will affect around 1.5 million homes and businesses across Minnesota, Michigan and New York.
12:33 p.m. ET
Wall Street Fear Gauge Spikes; Inflation Expectations Up
One useful gauge of market sentiment is the Cboe Volatility Index, or VIX. This measures expectations of volatility in the S&P 500 over the next 30 days, and is derived from the prices of the benchmark index's options.
The VIX spiked on the stock market today. According to the CNN Business Fear & Greed Index, it is now sitting at "extreme fear" levels.
With the VIX surging, investors should be on their guard for further painful volatility ahead.
Meanwhile, a newly released monthly survey from the New York Federal Reserve Bank showed rising worries among consumers about short-term inflation.
Consumer expectations for one-year U.S. inflation growth accelerated in February to a 3.1% rate, up from the previous month's reading for 3%.
In addition, the share of households expecting a worse financial situation a year from now rose to 27.4%. This was the highest level since November 2023.
Stock Market Today: These Equities Buck Trend, Test Entries
Despite the carnage, a couple of plucky stocks tested buy points Monday.
IBM briefly cleared a flat-base entry of 265.72 on its weekly chart, according to MarketSurge analysis.
The relative strength line also reached new highs, a further bullish signal. Overall performance for the computer hardware play is solid, but not ideal. It has an IBD Composite Rating of 84 out of 99.
Further, utility play American Water Works tested a cup base entry of 150.68. Its relative strength line also is spiking here.
Powerful performance has netted it a Composite Rating of 94. Both earnings and price performance over the past 12 months are solid.
Given the current market conditions, buying stocks is a highly risky proposition. However, investors should be looking for stocks that are performing well which they can add to their watchlists.
10:59 a.m. ET
Trump Says This On Recession
Stocks were spooked after President Trump failed to rule out the possibility of recession as he tinkers with U.S. trade policy.
When asked about the possibility of a recession, he told Fox News "I hate to predict things like that" but also added there "is a period of transition because what we're doing is very big."
Further, he did not sound particularly optimistic about the short-term prospects of the stock market.
"Look, what I have to do is build a strong country," he said "You can't really watch the stock market. If you look at China, they have a 100-year perspective."
Trump also insisted that business leaders and investors have "plenty of clarity" and that "tariffs could go up as time goes by."
So far, the new administration has sparked a new trade war on multiple fronts. Chinese tariffs took effect on a wide variety of U.S. agricultural products Monday after Trump administration doubled tariffs on Chinese imports last week to 20%.
Palantir Stock Skids Again
The story of Icarus acts as a warning of the dangers of flying too close to the sun. And this seemed to be playing out in real time on the stock market today as Palantir continued its eye-watering plunge from recent highs.
The data analysis stock and artificial intelligence play fell hard. Palantir stock had a meteoric ascent in 2024, rising by an astonishing 340%. It also joined the S&P 500.
While it continued to rise initially this year, it has reversed hard. It reached a high of 125.41 in February, but then suffered a waterfall-like descent.
Palantir stock now sits beneath its 50-day moving average and is now down nearly 37% from that recent high.
Stock Market Today: Novo Nordisk Dives After Results
Meanwhile, investors punished weight-loss play Novo Nordisk after test results from a next-generation drug failed to impress Wall Street.
The firm reported that its CagriSema drug helped obese or overweight adult patients with type 2 diabetes shed nearly 16% of their weight after 68 weeks.
However, this came in well below its previous forecast of 25% weight reduction. The results were even worse than a prior test, released in December, which showed weight loss of nearly 23%.
Novo Nordisk stock knifed nearly 10% lower and gapped below its 50-day moving average, MarketSurge analysis shows. This sell signal comes with the stock already mired in a downtrend.
Please follow Michael Larkin on X at @IBD_MLarkin for more analysis of growth stocks.
