Stocks could do something today that hasn't happened since the Great Depression

1 week ago 7

Quartz Staff

Mon, Apr 7, 2025, 7:09 AM 3 min read

The S&P 500 fell 4% soon aft trading started Monday, officially putting the benchmark scale into carnivore marketplace territory. It aboriginal reversed immoderate of those losses. But if the marketplace closes the mode it opened, Monday could beryllium a genuinely historical time successful the banal marketplace — and not successful a bully way.

If the S&P were to adjacent down much than 4% connected Monday, it would beryllium the 3rd consecutive trading time it has posted declines of much than 4%. And that would beryllium the archetypal clip the S&P 500 has suffered 3 consecutive drops of much than 4% successful astir a century, since the 1929 banal marketplace clang that marked the onset of the Great Depression.

President Donald Trump’s announcement past week of sweeping tariffs connected astir each American trading spouse sent stocks to their worst week since the tallness of the coronavirus pandemic. Stocks had their worst time successful 5 years connected Thursday, and past did truthful again connected Friday.

The bleeding continued Monday. Shortly aft 10am, the S&P 500 was down 2.3%, paring losses of 4% that saw it articulation the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite successful in a carnivore marketplace (a autumn of 20% oregon much from a caller peak). The Nasdaq was disconnected 1.6% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average Futures fell 2.7%.

Stocks plunged overseas, with Hong Kong’s main marketplace scale plunging 13% successful its worst time since Asia’s 1997 fiscal crisis. Stocks besides fell sharply successful Europe.

Trump, who has struck a defiant code successful absorption to the extended marketplace selloff, said again precocious Sunday that his commercialized policies volition bring needed systemic alteration to the U.S. economy.

“What’s going to hap to the markets, I can’t archer you,” the president told reporters connected Air Force One connected his mode backmost to Washington from a play successful Florida. “I don’t privation thing to spell down. But sometimes you person to instrumentality medicine to hole something.”

Bill Ackman had a informing for Trump connected Sunday: Hit intermission connected the commercialized warfare connected hazard crashing the economy.

“The state is 100% down the president connected fixing a planetary strategy of tariffs that has disadvantaged the country,” Ackman, the billionaire CEO of Pershing Square Capital Management, said successful a lengthy station Sunday connected X. “But, concern is simply a assurance crippled and assurance depends connected trust.”

“By placing monolithic and disproportionate tariffs connected our friends and our enemies alike and thereby launching a planetary economical warfare against the full satellite astatine once, we are successful the process of destroying assurance successful our state arsenic a trading partner, arsenic a spot to bash business, and arsenic a marketplace to put capital,” Ackman went on. “The president has an accidental to telephone a 90-day clip out, negociate and resoluteness unfair asymmetric tariff deals, and induce trillions of dollars of caller concern successful our country.”