Stock markets launched the week with losses Monday amid growing concerns about the state of the US economy and the impact of President Trump's trade policy.
The Dow Jones industrial average fell 381 points, down 0.9% Monday before 11:30am. The NASDAQ Composite fell by 3.5%, while the S&P 500 index fell by 2%.
It has been steadily falling since the beginning of March in response to a series of overwhelming economic data and announcements of whipping tariffs from the Trump administration.
Wall Street is increasingly afraid of a recession after public and private sector job data, consumer confidence surveys and inflation measurements, showing that the economy is betrayed by progress made at the end of the Biden administration.
Trump is also constantly changing tariffs on Mexican, Canada and China products, rattling markets and business leaders. The president last week exposed all Mexican and Canadian goods to 25% tariffs, but later exempts imports in accordance with the US Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), and the NAFTA rewrite attacked during Trump's first term.
Trump also threatened to impose additional tariffs on Canadian wood and dairy products and reiterated his plans to collect mutual import taxes to reflect tariffs placed by other countries on US products.
The Mexican government is refraining from retaliation, but the federal government of Canada and several states have charged new charges on Canadian energy exports and removed American products from the shelves.
Trump's trade war has fueled deep concern among economists and some members of his party about the potential impact of higher costs and the decline in exports to the US economy.
Trump was at home when asked Sunday if he was worried about causing a recession.
“I hate predicting such things,” Trump told Baltiromo on “Sunday Morning Futures” when asked if he was expecting a recession this year.
“What we do is so big, there is a period of transition. We bring wealth back to America. That's a big thing. And there's always a period – it takes a little time. It takes a little time. But I think it should be great for us. I mean, I think it should be great.”
Updated at 11:26am.
