Trump tariff tailspin worsens, Nasdaq confirms in bear market

Wall Street nosedived for a 2nd consecutive time connected Friday, confirming the Nasdaq Composite was successful a carnivore marketplace and the Dow Jones Industrial Average was successful a correction, arsenic an escalating planetary trade war spurred the biggest losses since the pandemic.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite posted their largest two-day declines since the emerging coronavirus caused planetary panic during U.S. President Donald Trump's archetypal term. For Thursday and Friday, the Dow was down 9.3%, the S&P 500 10.5% and the Nasdaq 11.4%.

Fallout from Trump's sweeping tariffs stoked fears of a planetary recession, wiping trillions of dollars of worth from U.S. companies. Highlighting increasing panic among investors, the CBOE Volatility Index, oregon Wall Street's fearfulness gauge, closed astatine its highest level since April 2020.

Since precocious connected Wednesday, erstwhile Trump boosted tariff barriers to their highest level successful much than a century, investors person dumped stocks, fearing some the caller U.S. economical world and besides however U.S. trading partners mightiness retaliate by steepening their ain commercialized barriers.

A record-breaking fig of shares were traded connected Friday, with measurement connected U.S. exchanges astir 26.79 cardinal shares, beating the erstwhile precocious of 24.48 cardinal shares traded connected January 27, 2021.

The Nasdaq slid connected Friday 962.82 points, oregon 5.82%, to 15,587.79, confirming the tech-heavy scale was successful a carnivore marketplace compared to its grounds closing precocious of 20,173.89 connected December 16.

Meanwhile, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 2,231.07 points, oregon 5.50%, to 38,314.86 points, confirming a correction to its grounds closing precocious of 45,014.04 connected December 4.

The S&P 500 mislaid 322.44 points, oregon 5.97%, to adjacent astatine 5,074.08 points, its lowest decorativeness successful 11 months.

"Right now, however atrocious it gets depends connected however committed the medication is to this acceptable of policies which, clearly, the marketplace is voting against," said Steve Sosnick, main strategist astatine Interactive Brokers.

Global governments began reacting to Trump's tariff announcement connected Friday, further undermining capitalist sentiment that a planetary recession could beryllium averted. JP Morgan said it was forecasting a 60% accidental of the planetary system entering a recession by year-end, up from 40% previously.

China's concern ministry said it would enforce further tariffs of 34% connected each U.S. goods from April 10. Meanwhile, the premier ministers of Britain, Australia and Italy held talks connected however to respond to Trump's tariff salvo.

"We're successful the Wild West of a commercialized warfare close now," said Mariam Adams, managing manager astatine UBS Wealth Management.

For the week, the S&P 500 fell 9.1%, the Dow declined 7.9%, and the Nasdaq slumped 10%.

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell spoke publically for the archetypal clip since Trump's tariff announcement. Powell highlighted the unexpectedly hefty tariffs could trigger higher ostentation and slower growth, mounting the signifier for challenging decisions for U.S. cardinal bankers.

Safe-haven buying successful the enslaved marketplace sent the output connected the benchmark 10-year Treasury notes to beneath 4%.

This pushed U.S. slope stocks down further, with the assemblage nether unit globally, arsenic the imaginable of involvement complaint cuts from cardinal banks and a deed to economical maturation from tariffs would crimp profitability. The S&P Banks scale dropped 7.3%.

All 11 S&P sectors dropped by much than 4.5%, with vigor the starring laggard for the 2nd consecutive day, disconnected 8.7%, arsenic companies tracked a 7.3% diminution successful U.S. crude prices.

U.S.-listed shares of Chinese companies dived, with JD.com and Alibaba and Baidu each down much than 7.7%.

Companies with vulnerability to China besides fell crossed the board, with mega-caps specified arsenic Apple dropping 7.3%.

The chipmakers scale sank 7.6%, having declined 9.9% the erstwhile day. The assemblage is peculiarly susceptible to a treble tariff whammy arsenic galore spot companies plan their chips successful the U.S., but person them manufactured successful China.

(Reporting by Sruthi Shankar and Pranav Kashyap successful Bengaluru and David French successful New York; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta, Anil D'Silva and David Gregorio)