The stock market closed with a bloodbath on Friday as the Dow Jones lost 2,231 points and the S&P 500 dropped 6 percent as investors are spooked about the impact of President Donald Trump’s tariff plan.
This marks the worst week for the stock market since 2020, and only the fourth time in history that the Dow lost 2,000 points in a single day. Market-wide losses over the last two days now total a record-breaking $6.4 trillion, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Friday had already started badly for the Dow when it lost 1,000 points at the opening. The plunge just continued from there. The NASDAQ didn’t do better and ended the day with a loss of 962 points. That comes after the NASDAQ lost more than 1,000 points on Thursday during a historically bad day.
The Dow now nears “correction” territory - which is when a market loses 10 percent of value from its high.
Wall Street is reactively negatively as concerns over Trump’s tariffs continue to fuel recession fears. On Wednesday, the President announced sweeping tariffs on nearly every nation of at least 10 percent. Trump has said it's needed so there is fairness for American manufacturers. But, experts have warned that the tariffs could spark an economic downturn.
Analysts say the bull market — which occurs when prices are rising and investor optimism is high — is over.
“The bull market is dead, and it was destroyed by ideologues and self-inflicted wounds,” Emily Bowersock Hill, CEO and founding partner at Bowersock Capital Partners, told CNBC. “While the market may be close to the bottom in the short-term, we are concerned about the impact of a global trade-war on long-term economic growth.”
Another expert, described the tariffs as causing clocks to go back in time.
"The economic pain that will be brought by these tariffs [is] hard to describe and can essentially take the U.S. tech industry back a decade in the process while China steamrolls ahead," Dan Ives of Wedbush Securities said in a report, according to CBS News.
Former Trump official, and now critic, Anthony Scaramucci blasted some of the coverage by conservative media of the historic drop.
“Imagine President Harris taking $10 trillion out of the global stock markets in the first 80 days of her residency what the Fox News people would be doing right now!!!!” he wrote on X.
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said Friday that Trump’s tariffs are likely to raise inflation and slow economic growth. Powell said he believes the economy is currently “solid” but empathizes with those feeling uncertain in the face of the recent mark drops.
“I realize that the uncertainty is high,” he said. “I understand the uncertainty that's weighing on people.”
JPMorgan’s Chief Economist Bruce Kasman said the investment bank now sees a 60 percent chance of the global economy entering recession in 2025, up from 40 percent.
Trump downplayed the impact his plan was having on the market.
“MY POLICIES WILL NEVER CHANGE,” he wrote on Truth Social. “ONLY THE WEAK WILL FAIL!”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio similarly defended the tariffs, claiming Friday he’s confident the markets will bounce back.
“Businesses around the world, including in trade and global trade, they just need to know what the rules are,” Rubio said from a NATO meeting in Brussels. “Once they know what the rules are, they will adjust to those rules.”
“I don’t think it’s fair to say economies are crashing,” he continued. “Markets are crashing because markets are based on the stock value of companies who today are embedded in modes of production that are bad for the United States.”
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